Ascent Resources Sells Another 3.5 Billion Units for $787 Million
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?…
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Last week MDN told you that ratings agency Fitch Ratings had issued a “Loans of Concern” report, which is a report on loans the agency believes companies will soon default on. One of the names in the list stood out to MDN: American Energy-Marcellus (see 
Ratings agency giant Fitch Ratings maintains and periodically issues a “Loans of Concern” list. It is a list of companies Fitch considers to have “material, near-term default risks.” That is, the companies will likely default on repaying loans, which may lead to nastier things, like a bankruptcy. As of last week when Fitch issued the list, there were 53 companies on it. Of those 53 companies, some 49% of them (26 in all) are energy companies. You must be a Fitch subscriber in order to see the full report/list of companies. Alas, we are not. However, Argus got a look and lists a few of the names in the list. One of those names stood out for us: American Energy-Marcellus, which is one of the American Energy subsidiary companies founded by former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon. American Energy’s Marcellus/Utica division later changed its name to Ascent Resources in June 2015 (see 
Everyone loves a Top 5 or Top 10, including MDN. Who are the Top 5 drillers in the Utica Shale? It depends, of course, on your criteria for selecting such a list. One of MDN’s favorite writers on The Motley Fool website, Matt DiLallo, has just published what he calls “The 5 Companies Dominating the Utica Shale Play.” In other words, the Top 5 Utica drillers. Matt points out that in the span of five short years the Utica has become the nation’s second largest shale gas play, behind only the Marcellus. Matt uses a combination of acres-under-lease and number-of-wells-drilled to come up with his list of five drillers who are leading the charge in the Utica. It won’t surprise you to learn that Chesapeake Energy, which was the first company to drill in the Utica under then-CEO Aubrey McClendon, is head-and-shoulders above the rest as the #1 Dominator in the Utica. Some of the others in the Top 5 list may, however, surprise you. Here’s Matt’s excellent roundup of the Utica…
A small earthquake that nobody felt (2.1 on the Richter scale) hit Harrison County, OH Tuesday evening. There was immediate speculation about whether or not the earthquake is tied to Utica Shale drilling in the area. Aubrey McClendon’s Ascent Resources is drilling near where the quake originated. It’s WAY too early to even speculate on whether or not the quake is tied to a fracking operation. IF (a very big IF) fracking did cause this quake, it would be the sixth known time that fracking itself (instead of an injection well) has caused an earthquake–out of millions of wells drilled and fracked. Statistically zero…
Although MDN caught and reported on the Bloomberg article questioning Aubrey McClendon’s high roller ways (see 
Everybody’s suing everybody. That about sums up the mess created (sadly) by none other than Aubrey McClendon. The subsidiary businesses that were once part of McClendon’s new company, American Energy Partners (AEP), continue to run away from Aubrey as fast as they can. On Monday, Ascent Resources, once called American Energy Appalachia Holdings but separated from the AEP mothership in June (see 
We have major news coming from Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP). A lot of news. So buckle in. First we’ll tell you the news, then we’ll give you our take on that news–what it means. In brief, the news coming from AEP HQ in Oklahoma City is this: (1) AEP’s Marcellus/Utica AEP subsidiary, American Energy Appalachia Holdings, has been spun out into a 100% standalone company and has changed its name to Ascent Resources; (2) the CEO of Ascent is the same guy who was the CEO of American Energy Appalachia Holdings–trusted McClendon lieutenant Jeffrey A. Fisher; (3) Ascent has cut a deal with Gulfport Energy to sell 35,000 prime Utica Shale acres for $407 million; and (4) Ascent has just sold shares in the company and taken out new loans for $977 million, giving them $700 million in cash after they pay off certain other loans. Whew! Here’s the details, along with a little news of our own about AEP…