APC (APC, Financial) is a global exploration and production company with a high-quality upstream portfolio comprised of U.S. onshore resources, deep-water Gulf of Mexico assets, and interests in other high-potential oil and gas basins around the world. The company also owns 91% of Western Gas Equity Partners (WGP), a publicly traded master limited partnership created in 2012 to hold APC's limited and general partner interests in Western Gas Partners (WES). In mid-December the company suffered a legal setback stemming from its 2006 acquisition of oil and gas assets from Kerr-McGee, whose titanium dioxide unit went bankrupt. With APC facing potential damages of $14 billion or $5 billion, investors dumped the shares, which we then acquired at an average cost of $78.55. Assuming a worst-case legal outcome, APC's core valuation net of its stake in WGP and its interest in an undeveloped, but valuable prospect in Mozambique, is less than 4x EBITDA. This is cheap compared to peers that lack APC's valuable upstream assets and exciting exploration prospects, but nonetheless trade at higher valuations. Our legal analysis suggests that the ultimate payment is likely to be the lesser of the two amounts and will be partly tax deductible. APC shares ended the quarter at $79.32.
From David Einhorn (Trades, Portfolio)'s fourth quarter 2013 commentary.
