The shareholders meetings to vote on the January-announced merger of Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy and Houston’s Southwestern Energy have finally been set and announced.
In a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chesapeake Energy said its virtual shareholders meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 18 at 10 a.m. Central time. Southwestern Energy’s meeting will also be virtual and held at the same time.
Shareholders of record at the close of business on April 22 for both firms will be entitled to vote on the merger valued at $7.4 billion.
Shareholders will be asked to consider and vote on the proposals to approve the issuance of shares of Chesapeake Common Stock to the Southwestern shareholders. They will also be asked to vote on compensation arrangements in connection with the merger.
The board of directors of Southwestern has unanimously approved the merger agreement and recommended that Southwestern shareholders vote “FOR” the Merger Proposal, “FOR” the Advisory Southwestern Compensation Proposal and “FOR” the Southwestern Adjournment Proposal.
Based on the number of shares in each company, it’s estimated that if the deal is approved and finalized by shareholders, Chesapeake shareholders will hold about 60% and Southwestern shareholders will hold approximately 40% of the issued and outstanding shares of Chesapeake Common stock.
Under the merger and as recently announced, the new company will be led by Chesapeake President and CEO Nick Dell’Osso Jr.
Chris Lacy, who has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Southwestern will be the new Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. He is the only executive coming from Southwestern Energy.
Mohit Singh will be the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Josh Viets will be Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Both have been executives with Chesapeake Energy.
The new board of directors will include Mike Wichterich as Chairman and other members include John Gass, Catherine Kehr, Shameek Konar and Anne Taylor from Southwestern and Timothy Duncan, Benjamin Duster, Sarah Emerson, Matt Gallagher, Brian Steck and Dell’Osso Jr. from Chesapeake,