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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ken Robbins who wrote (45264)	5/21/1999 5:35:00 PM
From: IndioBlues	Respond to of 95453

Excerpt from TheStreet/Herb Greenberg re PZE deal "Not a gusher: So, a month ago this column talked to the Bayou Fund's Jim Marquez, a private hedge fund manager, who was said that one of his favorite cheap energy stocks was PennzEnergy (PZE:NYSE). PennzEn was the exploration and production side of the old Pennzoil before another part of Pennzoil merged with Quaker State Oil in December to form Pennzoil-Quaker State (PZL:NYSE). "Before the split, Union Pacific Resources Group (UPR:NYSE) had offered 84 per share in cash to buy Pennzoil. Pennzoil just said no and the deal fell apart, as did the stocks of both companies. They now trade for a combined 29, or about 14 1/2 for both. J.L. Pate, chairman of both companies, has said several times that before he retires he will deliver 84 per share to investors. "And Marquez, in our month-ago conversation, said he didn't think it was beyond the realm of possibility. He thought Union Pacific Resources Group, flush with more than $1 billion in cash, wasn't entirely out of the picture. But if it didn't show up, he figured somebody else surely would, which is just what Devon Energy (DVN:AMEX) did yesterday when it agreed to buy PennzEn for $2.4 billion in stock and assumed debt. "Ridiculously low, some investors claim, especially when the company walked away from so much more money so recently. "Now the question is whether somebody else, even Union Pacific, will show up with a counter-bid. PennzEn's stock, which actually fell on the news, is 20% higher than where it was when Marquez and I first spoke, but it's still far below where it would need to be for Pate to deliver on his promise. "Doesn't look like anybody's betting on a higher bid. Or maybe it's just that arbs, once burned by Pennzoil, are simply avoiding the deal. (I tried to get a comment from Pate regarding the status of the 84 payday, but so far no comment.)"