Over in Western Canada, Rob Zakresky's B.C. Montney producer, Leucrotta Exploration Inc. (LXE), stayed unchanged at $2.16 on 365,900 shares. It announced this morning that shareholders have approved its proposed takeover by Vermilion Energy Inc. (VET), up 71 cents to $25.51 on 2.48 million shares. Management said the deal received "approximately 100-per-cent" approval. (Oh, how the "approximately" must grate.) It should close by the end of the month.
Upon closing, Mr. Zakresky and his people will immediately turn their focus to their next promotion, carrying on a proud tradition of creating spinouts with colourful names. Investors will recall that Leucrotta (named after a mythical beast) was born by spinout when Mr. Zakresky sold Crocotta Energy (also named after a mythical beast) in 2014. (The buyer, Long Run Exploration, was sold to a Chinese outfit in 2016.) The next Zakresky promotion -- initially referred to simply as ExploreCo -- is to be dubbed Coelacanth Energy. The coelacanth ("see-la-kanth") is a rare, elusive species of deep-sea fish that was previously thought to have gone extinct 65 million years ago, until being unexpectedly found alive and well off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Today's press release did not go into this history; indeed, it quickly switched back to using ExploreCo, the PR crew apparently needing more time to get used to the new mouthful of a moniker.
The fish are bottom-dwellers, but presumably Mr. Zakresky hopes that the share price of his Coelacanth will not share that characteristic. Under the deal with Vermilion, shareholders will receive $1.73 cash and one share of Coelacanth (plus a partial warrant) for each share of Leucrotta. Vermilion will also become a sizable investor in Coelacanth, buying $14.4-million of its shares at 27 cents. Mr. Zakresky has applied to list Coelacanth on the TSX-V. A listing date remains undetermined.