Monday, March 5, 2012

Natural Gas: Exco Resources Names Wilbur Ross to Its Board (XCO)

Distressed investing expert in a distressed company. Hmmm...
The stock is down 4.7% at $6.88, just off the three year low set last week. Double hmmm...
From Deal Journal:
Billionaire turnaround investor Wilbur L. Ross Jr., famous for consolidating the ailing U.S. steel business, has been named to the board of natural gas producer Exco Resources Inc.

Ross, who heads WL Ross & Co. LLC, has nearly doubled his stake Exco in the last year. The company said Monday that he controls about 13.7% of its shares.

That’s up from the 7.5% stake he reported in December 2010 amid Exco Chief Executive Douglas Miller’s unsuccessful bid to take the Fort Worth, Texas, company private.

Ross reached a standstill agreement with Exco last summer, agreeing to remain a passive investor and acquire no more than a 20% stake in the company. The pact expires Feb. 3, 2013.

Miller’s take-private attempt — his second at Exco — fell apart when the investor group he assembled “lost a major player,” forcing the group to lower its bid to $18.50 per share from $20.50.

The investor group included private-equity firms Oaktree Capital Management, Ares Management and oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens. The “major player” that abandoned the take-private was never named....MORE