In March of this year MDN reported that Ascent Resources–formerly Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners’ Utica Shale company–floated 2.2 billion common units (think shares of stock) to raise $500 million (see Ascent Resources Sells More of Company to Pay Down Debt). Ascent planned to use that money to pay off existing notes, or IOUs. The company is back again, this time selling ANOTHER 3.5 billion common units hoping to raise $787 million. And yes, much of it will be used to pay down outstanding debt. But the company also plans to use $175 million of the proceeds to fund their Utica drilling program in Ohio. According to Ascent CEO Jeff Fisher, with this round the company will have raised $1.5 billion in cash from selling off ownership of the company. Each time they float more units it further waters down the value of existing common units, i.e. makes each share less valuable. How many more units can they float without totally dilluting the value for existing owners?…
