News

Acquisitive intermediate Crescent Point Energy Corp. said Wednesday it has added $1 billion in credit capacity as it announced production results from an active fourth quarter that matched analyst expectations.

The Calgary-based company that produces light oil in Saskatchewan, Alberta, North Dakota and Utah said it increased its syndicated facility by 40 per cent after year-end, bringing total credit to $3.6 billion, with $1.27 billion employed as of Dec. 31.

That means it has $2.33 billion of capacity to make acquisitions should an energy buyers market develop as many analysts are predicting. Last year it spent more than $2 billion on three major acquisitions.

On a conference call, president and chief executive Scott Saxberg said the company is in discussions with “various parties” regarding mergers and acquisitions without being specific.

“We’re being very selective, prudent and opportunistic,” he said.

Later, he said the company would be interested in buying more assets in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado, where it has owned land and has been assessing opportunities for about a year, or in consolidating land in its core areas.

“It’s all on a relative basis. In this price environment, obviously values and valuations of those assets are going to drop substantially,” he said.

“And then relative to where our share price has gone, we want to capture and be prudent in how we approach those acquisitions so they’re accretive on a transaction basis and not step into something that’s expensive, that could hurt us.”

Analysts have suggested Crescent Point is a likely bidder for the Saskatchewan Bakken business unit put on the block in December by Calgary’s Lightstream Resources Ltd. to pay down debt.

On Wednesday, Crescent Point shares closed at $28.21, up 49 cents. They have traded between $21.20 and $48.68 in the past 52 weeks.