Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and WildHorse Resource Development (WRD) today jointly announced that Chesapeake has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WildHorse, an oil and gas company with operations in the Eagle Ford Shale and Austin Chalk formations in southeast Texas, in a transaction valued at approximately $3.977B, based on yesterday's closing price, including the value of WildHorse's net debt of $930M as of June 30, 2018.

At the election of each WildHorse common shareholder, the consideration will consist of either 5.989 shares of Chesapeake common stock or a combination of 5.336 shares of Chesapeake common stock and $3 in cash, in exchange for each share of WildHorse common stock. The transaction was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of each company. The deal is projected to double adjusted oil production by 2020 from stand-alone adjusted 2018 estimates, increasing to a projected range of 125,000 to 130,000 barrels of oil per day in 2019, and 160,000 to 170,000 bbls of oil per day in 2020; Chesapeake's 2020 projected adjusted oil production mix is expected to increase to approximately 30% of total production, compared to approximately 19% today; Increases projected EBITDA per barrel of oil equivalent margin by approximately 35% in 2019 and by approximately 50% in 2020, based on current strip prices; $200M-$280M in projected average annual savings, totaling $1B-$1.5B by 2023, due to operational and capital efficiencies as a result of Chesapeake's significant expertise with unconventional assets and technical and operational excellence; incremental savings through elimination of redundant corporate overhead, gathering, processing and transmission synergies and improved capital markets execution due to improved credit metrics. Upon closing, Chesapeake shareholders will own approximately 55% of the combined company, and WildHorse shareholders will own approximately 45%, depending on the consideration elected. Chesapeake expects to finance the cash portion of the WildHorse acquisition, which is expected to be between $275M and approximately $400M, through its revolving credit facility.

The transaction, which is subject to shareholder approvals from both companies and customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first half of 2019.