Like Elvis, JANA Partners LLC has left the building.
The QEP Resources Inc. building, that is. The New York-based hedge fund, known for cryin’ all the time about QEP’s need to depart the midstream, no longer owns a stake in the company. Its work there is done.
JANA owned almost 13 million shares of Denver-based QEP at one time, but since it achieved its aims, has returned those units to sender—or to other investors. The $2.5 billion sale of QEP Field Services Co. to San Antonio-based Tesoro Logistics LP (TLLP) closed in December.
It wasn’t exactly a now-or-never deal, but the timing worked and Tesoro was happy to help.
Greg Goff, TLLP’s chairman and CEO, can’t help falling in love with several aspects of the acquisition. During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, he said he anticipated production growth in the Rockies’ Vermillion and Uinta fields, where QEP ran gathering and processing operations, to run 10% to 15% in 2015, resulting in EBITDA of $250 million to $275 million.
Several projects are expected to bolster EBITDA over the next three to five years, meaning that the acquisition multiple of 10.5 to 11.5 should decrease to less than 10 by 2016. Goff also expects the acquired talent, now strolling the hallways in their new Tesoro polos, to play key roles in snaring integrated crude oil and natural gas gathering projects in the Bakken.
Since liquidating its QEP holdings in October, JANA has turned its suspicious minds toward McDonald’s Corp. QEP’s investors may be unenthused over the 4.5% unit price decline following announcement of the deal, but the company will have $2.5 billion to spend.
Tesoro’s investors, however, have seen their shares drop by 13.8%. Until those promising aspects that Goff extols start to emerge, they are unlikely to say thank you, thank you very much.
Joseph Markman can be reached at jmarkman@hartenergy.com or 713-260-5208.
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