Roan Resources To Become Citizen’s In $1 Billion All-Cash Deal

The first major E&P transaction of fourth-quarter 2019 was another combo, this time with private-equity backed Citizen Energy LLC saying Oct. 1 it would purchase Roan Resources Inc. for $1 billion cash.

The deal may portend future take-private offers for public companies that have largely been scorned by the public market—a trend already emerging in the midstream sector. It also follows a pattern set in the third quarter in which no single play or basin dominated transactions. Citizen’s offer for Roan’s Oklahoma assets follows deals announced in the Barnett, Bakken, Eagle Ford, Marcellus and Permian.

The merger, if approved by Roan shareholders, will pay $1.52 per share of common stock, a 24% premium on the company’s Sept. 30 closing price. Most of the cash paid by Citizen, a Tulsa, Okla.-based company backed by Warburg Pincus LLC, would absorb Roan’s $780 million net debt.