Cheniere Energy’s Souki has a $147.8 million golden parachute
Industry giants such as Exxon on the hunt for smaller firms
Apache Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., two exploration businesses that may find themselves as targets in an industry consolidation, are run by chief executives with smaller golden parachutes than similar-sized oil and gas companies.
The dollar incentive for takeovers for Apache CEO John Christmann was $8.4 million as of the company’s fiscal year-end when he was chief operating officer, and Anadarko CEO Al Walker’s was $31.2 million as of the end of 2014, regulatory filings show. By comparison, Charif Souki, the CEO of natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy Inc., has a payout of $147.8 million, the highest of 83 U.S. oil and gas companies with a market value less than $45 billion as of their fiscal year-end.
Industry giants such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. — among a group of oil producers that has a half-trillion dollars in cash and shares to fund takeovers — are bargain hunting for smaller firms battered by the commodity’s slump. U.S. oil prices are down 45 percent in the past year, the worst 12-month slide since 1986, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Anadarko, based in The Woodlands, Texas, and the third-largest U.S. natural gas producer, said it withdrew an all-stock offer for Apache after the Houston-based company refused to engage in substantive talks. The move has put both businesses into play as targets, John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund, said in an interview last week. By making the unsuccessful bid public, Anadarko may be trying to increase pressure on Apache’s board to consider a sale.
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