Alabama-based Diversified Energy announced it has made a $1.2 billion acquisition of Maverick Natural Resources of Houston in a deal involving Diversified’s expansion of operations in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin.
A portion of the $1.275 billion acquisition directly offsets Diversified’s core Western Anadarko position with active development in the Cherokee Play, and provides a new Permian asset base with multiple zones in the Northern Delaware Basin. The combined company will have an enterprise value of approximately $3.8 billion and operate across five distinct operating regions.
“The acquired producing assets have demonstrated leading well performance and are a natural fit with our operating advantage and existing acreage,” said Rusty Hutson, Jr., CEO of Diversified.
“Notably, the combined footprint in Oklahoma and the Western Anadarko Basin creates one of the largest in terms of production and acreage, which includes the emerging Cherokee formation.”
He said Diversified intends to take advantage of what Maverick developed.
” We plan to leverage Maverick’s experienced technical asset development team to unlock undeveloped acreage potential through an even larger combined footprint, and I am confident that Diversified’s management team will bring its expertise in efficiently integrating acquisitions to further expand our Smarter Asset Management practices.”
Diversified Energy believes the combination will enhance position in core geographies across Appalachia, the Western Anadarko, Permian, Barnett, and Ark-La-Tex regions, with commodity product diversification, including beneficial exposure to oil markets, to create a more resilient market cycle risk profile and more durable revenue.
Part of the acquisition included Diversified’s assumption of nearly $700 million of Maverick debt outstanding, the issuance of nearly 21.2 million new Diversified Ordinary Shares to the unitholders of Maverick vaued at about $345 million and $207 million cash.
Energy investor EIG helped finance the acquisition and upon completion, will own approximately 20% of the outstanding Ordinary Shares. Upon completion of the acquisition, the company’s Board will consist of eight directors, six of whom are members of the current Diversified Board, including Hutson, and two of whom will be designated by EIG.
Diversified Energy’s announcement indicated the firm had received commitments for $900 million on a new upsized $1.5 billion, four-year credit faciity which incorporated the existing Diversified lending and the new lending assets from Maverick as collateral.
The acquisition, which is expected to close during the first half of 2025, has been unanimously approved by the Board.