Hess Corporation announced today it has entered into an agreement with
Direct Energy, a North American subsidiary of Centrica plc, to sell its
Energy Marketing business for a total consideration of $1.025 billion.
The Energy Marketing business supplies natural gas and electricity to
23,000 commercial, industrial and small business customers in the
eastern half of the United States.
The transaction is part of the previously announced plan for Hess to
exit the entirety of its downstream business as it transforms into a
pure play E&P company with a portfolio of focused, high growth and lower
risk assets. The sale of Energy Marketing, along with the sales of four
producing assets earlier this year, brings total year-to-date
divestitures to $4.5 billion. Hess has used the proceeds from its
previously completed asset sales to repay $2.4 billion of debt and
further strengthen the Company’s balance sheet for future growth. The
sale of Energy Marketing now puts the Company in a position to begin
repurchasing shares under its existing $4 billion share repurchase
authorization.
John B. Hess, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our Energy Marketing
business has had a proud history and has been built upon long term
relationships with our customers. We are grateful to all of our
customers for their trust and support of our company over many years. We
also want to recognize and thank our dedicated employees for their
tireless efforts as well as their invaluable contributions in providing
outstanding service to meet our customers’ energy needs.”
The agreement is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary
closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of
2013.
Hess Corporation is a leading global independent energy company engaged
in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. More
information on Hess Corporation is available at http://www.hess.com.
Cautionary Statements
This news release contains projections and other forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These
projections and statements reflect the company’s current views with
respect to future events and financial performance. No assurances
can be given, however, that these events will occur or that these
projections will be achieved, and actual results could differ materially
from those projected as a result of certain risk factors. A
discussion of these risk factors is included in the company’s periodic
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Copyright Business Wire 2013