TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas, a unit of US-based copper producer Freeport-McMoRan, has withdrawn its initial public offering (IPO) in the wake of a collapse of oil and gas prices that wreaked havoc on company valuations.
Since the unit filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June 2015, the price of West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude had fallen nearly 22% to $47.75/bl on Friday.
Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport stated in an SEC filing on Friday that while the IPO registration statement had not been declared effective by the commission, it could confirm that no securities were sold under the offering.
Freeport, saddled with about $20-billion in debt, had previously stated that it planned to sell a minority stake in its oil and gas subsidiary to raise funds for project development.
CEO Richard Adkerson last week advised that the company would aim at getting its debt level down to around $10-billion in the next two to three years “if the market opens the door for us”.
The company planned to start cleaning up its balance sheet through asset sales, and earlier last week announced the sale of its 56% interest in the Tenke Fungurume copper mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for $2.65-billion.
Edited by: Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor
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