Boulder, Colo., oil and gas explorer Ellora Energy announced some significant management changes recently, which makes Corporate Dealmaker wonder: Whatever happened to its initial public offering?
First,
the management changes. On July 27 Ellora announced that Steve Enger would become president and COO, Lon McCain would become CFO and Jeffrey Williams would become vice president of business development. Williams worked at Pogo Producing Co. for 25 years before joining Ellora in 2005 (Pogo was later bought in 2007 by Plains Exploration and Production Co. for $3.6 billion). Ellora credits Williams with expanding its land position in Kansas and East Texas.
Now a look at Ellora's strategic starts and stops. The company has been on and off the block (with Petrie Parkman advising it) and going public and not going public for at least three years with a revolving door of underwriters, including AG Edwards, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Wachovia Securities, Raymond James and Merrill Lynch.
It tried to do an IPO last summer, but then the market collapsed and it refiled this past April for a $100 million offering led by Merrill Lynch and Raymond James. It filed a revised registration statement on July 20 with BoA Merrill Lynch and Raymond James as leads.
Ellora is backed by Yorktown Energy Partners, which initially invested in 2006 and now owns 63% of the company and has two directors - Bryan Lawrence and Peter Leidel - on its board.
Ellora didn't immediately return a call about what the new management team has planned for this little oil and gas driller. But with this new trio of managers and an IPO in the works, will Yorktown finally see a payoff? - Claire Poole
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