Pickens Says He’s Sold Off Holdings of Chesapeake Energy
T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy investor, said he’s sold off his shares in Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), his third-biggest stock holding at year-end.
“We do not own Chesapeake stock,” Pickens said yesterday at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas. “We didn’t like natural gas.”
Chesapeake’s directors said last week they will strip Aubrey McClendon of the chairman’s post and are conducting an internal review of his personal transactions involving corporate jet travel, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an informal inquiry. The stock declined 23 percent in 2012 through yesterday.
Asked whether it was “the politics of the company” that spurred his share sale, Pickens said, “It was not.”
“Aubrey is a good friend,” Pickens said. “The guy has pulled off some unusual deals. He’s done some very innovative things. He’s in a spot where he’s spending more than his cash flow.”
BP Capital Management, the investment firm Pickens founded in 1996, held 570,055 shares of Chesapeake as of Dec. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its biggest equity holdings were BP Plc (BP/) and McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR)
Pickens said the price of West Texas Intermediate oil could reach as high as $128 a barrel later this year. The oil for June delivery traded at about $96 a barrel yesterday.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kelly Bit in New York at kbit@bloomberg.net; Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
May 1 (Bloomberg) -- T. Boone Pickens, talks about the outlook for consolidation in the energy industry and the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from rock. Pickens speaks with special correspondent Willow Bay from the Milken Institute 2012 Global Conference in Los Angeles on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves With Deirdre Bolton." (Source: Bloomberg)
May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Kaplan, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and a former vice chairman at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., discusses Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s decision to name an independent chairman to replace Aubrey McClendon and halt an incentive program that allowed the chief executive officer to amass personal stakes in thousands of company-operated wells. Kaplan speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
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