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ENERGY
XTO to Buy Hunt Petroleum
XTO Energy agreed to acquire Hunt Petroleum for $4.2 billion, ending the 83-year run of a company founded by the late billionaire H.L. Hunt.
XTO, the U.S. natural-gas producer that has made more than two dozen acquisitions since 2000, will pay $2.6 billion in cash and $1.6 billion in stock. Most of Hunt's wells are in East Texas and Louisiana, where XTO is a leading gas producer.
The deal will allow XTO to buy Hunt at less than $4 per thousand cubic feet of gas reserves. That's one-third current U.S. prices for a fuel that has risen even faster than crude oil this year. Hunt family heirs are selling out after crude surged to a record above $135 a barrel and gas futures jumped 67 percent in 2008.
Oil Prices Fall on Revised Forecast
Oil prices fell, giving up an earlier advance as the dollar held its gains against the euro and the Energy Department decreased its oil consumption projections. The nationwide average price for retail gasoline rose to a new record of more than $4.04 a gallon.
The Energy Department indicated that high prices were cutting oil consumption more than expected in the industrialized world. Consumption is expected to fall by 240,000 barrels a day in 2008; last month, the department forecast consumption would be unchanged from 2007 levels.
REAL ESTATE
Calpers May Trim Land Holdings
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, may sell part of its $2 billion in residential land holdings after the investments lost 31 percent last year amid falling home prices and forecasts of further declines.
Calpers hired Morgan Stanley to review seven land deals it made with joint-venture partners and real estate advisers, fund spokeswoman Pat Macht said. The fund may decide to sell some of the land, purchased to develop new homes, or renegotiate partnerships.
The fund's entire real estate holdings, including apartments, offices and industrial buildings, were valued at $23.5 billion at the end of 2007 and earned 8.1 percent after expenses, according to Calpers investment committee documents.
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