A Compelling Long-Term Opportunity in the Energy Area By Ben Hoben

Halcon Resources (HK)
Halcon Resources was formed on February 8th in what was basically an acquisition and recapitalization combo. RAM Energy Resources was recapitalized by receiving $550 million in securities from Halcon Resources, LLC. This includes $275 million in new common stock and $275 million in convertible notes as well as warrants to purchase 110 million more shares at $4.50 per share.

Why I Like This Transaction

What gets me excited about this transaction is the fact that the $550 million was put in by Floyd Wilson who will now be the new CEO. Wilson was the former CEO of Petrohawk (who had the symbol HK). Petrohawk was a company Wilson built and sold last summer to BHP Billiton for a hefty premium.

Wilson obviously knows what he is doing and how to create shareholder value. After looking through their recent presentation they made at the Credit Suisse Energy Summit on February 9th you can see the path they are going down. Now flush with cash they are going to commence a drilling program focused on oil and liquids while at the same time monetizing their non-core assets by selling some of there properties.

Slide 26 Says Everything You Need to Know

The reason I love this opportunity so much can be summed up on their slide number 26 from their presentation. The slide is titled “Creating Value” with the following steps listed. Establish Well-Capitalized Platform (This has been done with the recapitalization.) Grow Reserves and Production (With the cash they received in the recapitalization they will put to good use to commence with a drilling program to beef up production but more importantly reserves.)

Minimize Operating Costs/Maximize Price Realizations

Divest High-Cost and Non-Core Assets (They’ve already announced three properties for sale so they can focus on their core assets.)

Built to Sell (Emphasis Added!)

This is the key reason here. Wilson built Petrohawk and sold it. Now he is stating he is going to build Halcon and sell it. Add to that he has $550 million reasons to follow through with this pledge. He even went back to the same symbol (HK) as Petrohawk.

Tremendous Long Term Opportunity

This isn’t a fast trade stock; rather it is for your long term portfolio. This is an opportunity to buy a company where the CEO has a history of building a company then selling it and has come right out and told you this is what he intends to do here. With a $300 million market cap this stock has plenty of room to get bigger and then be sold for a premium. While this could take years, I think you can start a position and buy the dips and follow along with a shrewd operator and make a healthy profit.

Disclosure: I bought a sizeable position in HK and intend to keep adding to it here over the next several weeks/months. Right now I see it becoming the largest holding in my long term account.