Friday, October 9, 2009

Occidental buys Citi firm Phibro for $250 million (OXY)

This has got to be a plus for OXY.
As more details come out I'll probably be writing about the Al Gore/Occidental connection, Armand Hammer and the Russians, the market's reaction to Mr. Hammer's death, anecdotes from Phibro etc. From MarketWatch:
Occidental Petroleum (OXY 79.62, -0.47, -0.59%) said Friday it would make a $250 million investment to buy Phibro LLC from Citigroup . Phibro is a trader in oil and gas, with assets consisting of marketable securities, and readily saleable commodity positions. Phibro does not trade in any exotic derivatives or hold any level three type assets. Phibro's management team, headed by Andrew Hall, and its employees will remain with the company after closing. From 1997 until the second quarter of 2009, Phibro averaged approximately $200 million per year in pre-tax earnings. Over the last five years, Phibro's earnings averaged $371 million per year.