Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHK) and Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) today announced the approval of a merger by their respective boards, valued at $7.4 billion.
Under the terms of the merger, Southwestern shareholders will receive 0.0867 shares of Chesapeake common stock for each Southwestern share they own at the time of closing.
The combined value of the companies, based on the exchange ratio and the share prices as of January 10, 2024, will be around $24 billion in enterprise value. The merger is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2024.
In the pre-market trading, SWN’s stock dropped by more than 2%, whereas CHK’s shares saw an increase of 2%.
After the merger, Chesapeake shareholders will own approximately 60% of the new entity, while Southwestern shareholders will have about 40% ownership on a fully diluted basis.