Billionaire George Soros doesn’t like what he sees financially in Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy and this week dumped his shares in the company.
The founder of Soros Fund Management LLC also withdrew stakes in Chevron Corporation and NRG Energy Inc. according to the Wall Street Journal. At the time Soros made the move, oil was under $30 a barrel, a 60 percent drop since he originally invested in the companies.
While Chesapeake is considered to be the second largest natural gas producer in the U.S.,it has struggled financially and will offer more details when it releases its fourth quarter and year-end financial results next week. It was late last year when Chesapeake brought in restructuring lawyers as the company attempted to reorganize and cuts its debt which at that time totaled $11.6 billion. Attorneys from Evercore Partners were hired to help with the move. It was followed by a slashing of Chesapeake’s corporate credit rate by S and P which said the company’s current debt exchange program was “distressed.”
Following that move, Soro dumped his Chesapeake stock and increased his holdings in Baker Hughes Incorporated, the second largest oil producer. His fund purchased 685,157 shares and remains supportive of the company’s merger with Halliburton Company.
