Jan 16 (Reuters) – Oil and gas company EP Energy Corp,
controlled by private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC
, raised about $704 million in an initial public offering
after its shares priced at $20, an underwriter told Reuters.
The company priced its IPO of 35.2 million shares way below
its expected price range of $23 to $27 per share. Based on the
number of outstanding shares, EP Energy would be valued at about
$5 billion.
The IPO marks an unusually fast exit by private equity
player Apollo Global Management, LLC, highlighting its eagerness
to capitalize on high oil prices and strong equity markets.
The shares of Antero Resources Corp, controlled by
Warburg Pincus, have risen about 30 percent since the oil and
gas producer went public in October.
Buyout firms typically hold portfolio companies for between
three to seven years before seeking an IPO. Apollo bought EP
Energy from Kinder Morgan Inc for $7.15 billion in the
largest private equity deal of 2012.
Kinder Morgan had previously acquired the business as part
of its $21 billion takeover of El Paso.
EP Energy intends to list its common stock on the New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol “EPE.”
Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are
among the lead underwriters for the IPO.
(Reporting by Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore and Michael Erman
in New York. Editing by Andre Grenon)
