After Chesapeake Deal, Energy Company Files IPO

I just wrote about the positive effect Chesapeake Energy’s (NYSE: CHK) $125 million property sale is having on the natural gas giant’s stock. What I didn’t mention was the impact the acquisition is having on the buyer.

Energy & Exploration Partners, a Texas-based exploration and production company that focuses on unconventional oil and natural gas resources, is going public. The company filed its IPO papers with the SEC yesterday, hours before the company’s purchase of 57,275 acres of Texas land from Chesapeake Energy was announced.

Energy & Exploration hopes to raise $275 million in its initial public offering. According to its SEC papers, the company booked $1 billion in sales in 2011. It plans to list on New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ENXP.

Energy & Exploration’s IPO filing comes at a good time. Natural gas prices have risen 58% since hitting a decade low back in mid-April. With both presidential candidates making natural gas production a major part of their campaign platforms, demand for natural gas seems sure to increase in the coming years.

That should benefit natural gas companies like this one.