Morgan Stanley PE Backs Natural Gas Play
The transaction is the fourth time MSPE has backed an Appalachian Basin energy deal.
June 5, 2009
Morgan Stanley Private Equity is making a bet on North America's Marcellus Shale, sealing a deal to acquire natural gas exploration company Triana Energy Investments LLC.
Morgan Stanley's investment unit will take control of the Charleston, W.Va.-based company with a reported equity commitment of close to $100 million. The transaction, announced earlier this week, marks the fourth time MSPE has funded an Appalachian Basin energy play.
Officials from Morgan Stanley did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The Marcellus Shale is a sedimentary rock bed with large natural gas reserves that stretches from northern New York through parts of Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and other Eastern states.
The rock formation has also attracted other energy exploration companies, including Williams Companies Inc. and Atlas Pipeline Partners LP of Moon Township, Pa. The pair completed their agreement this week to launch a joint exploration effort in the Marcellus Shale. Williams, a Tulsa, Okla.-based natural gas processor with a $10 billion market cap, has funded the venture with $125.5 million.
For MSPE, the transaction is the second time it has executed a deal with Henry Harmon, the former president of Columbia Natural Resources. Six years earlier, the buyout group and Harmon backed the purchase of Columbia, which Chesapeake Energy Corp. subsequently purchased for $2.2 billion in 2005.
Harmon will serve as chairman and chief executive of Triana.
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