Major Shareholders Launch $791M Secondary Offering; Company to Buy Back $45.5M in Units
Summary
Viper Energy's major shareholders are selling 17.4 million shares in a secondary offering valued at $791 million, from which the company will receive no proceeds. Concurrently, the company will buy back 1 million OpCo Units from Oaktree for $45.5 million.
Key Events
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Secondary Offering by Major Shareholders
An aggregate of 17,391,304 shares of Class A common stock are being sold by existing stockholders, including Diamondback Energy, Oaktree, EnCap Energy Capital Fund X, L.P., and Tumbleweed Royalty IV, LLC. This offering is valued at approximately $791 million based on the reported offering price of $45.50 per share.
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No Proceeds to Company
Viper Energy, Inc. will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares in this secondary offering, as all proceeds will go to the selling stockholders.
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Concurrent Unit Buyback
In connection with the offering, the company has agreed to purchase up to 1,000,000 OpCo Units from affiliates of Oaktree for approximately $45.5 million. This buyback is conditioned upon the completion of the secondary offering.
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Formalizes Prior Announcements
This prospectus supplement provides the formal details for the secondary offering that was previously announced and priced in recent news and filings, including the specific number of shares and selling parties.
Analysis
This prospectus supplement formalizes a significant secondary public offering where major shareholders, including parent company Diamondback Energy, Oaktree, EnCap, and Tumbleweed Royalty IV, are selling an aggregate of 17.4 million shares of Class A common stock. Based on the reported offering price of $45.50 per share, this offering is valued at approximately $791 million. Critically, Viper Energy, Inc. will not receive any proceeds from this sale, which can create an overhang on the stock due to increased float and a signal of reduced insider ownership. Concurrently, the company has agreed to purchase up to 1 million OpCo Units from Oaktree affiliates for approximately $45.5 million, a move that partially offsets the dilutive effect of the secondary offering by reducing outstanding units/shares, but is significantly smaller in scale than the shares being sold by other major holders.
At the time of this filing, VNOM was trading at $45.51 on NASDAQ in the Energy & Transportation sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $17.3B. The 52-week trading range was $34.71 to $48.23. This filing was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10.