On September 6, 2023, Persist Oil and Gas, Inc. ("Persist") and Dienerian Resources Inc. ("Dienerian") completed an all-stock merger, significantly bolstering Persist's oil development in southern Alberta's Mannville formation. Founded in 2017, Dienerian brought its expertise in the Montney formation's Wild River area, backed by Siguler Guff, its principal investor. In tandem with the merger, Siguler Guff committed approximately $40 million in preferred equity to the merged entity.
Persist's executive team was appointed to lead the new company, with Siguler Guff acquiring half the board seats. This merger expanded Persist's operational footprint to over 220,000 net acres, including around 60,000 net acres in the Montney region, and increased its daily production to about 4,250 barrels of oil equivalent.
Persist's success in the Basal Quartz formation, with an initial production rate of 706 barrels per day, positions the company to further develop its assets in the Mannville Stack oil fairway. Mass Geremia, Persist's CEO, emphasized the merger's timely benefits in accelerating development and enhancing shareholder value.
The merger's key advantages include a larger production scale, a diverse high-return drilling portfolio, immediate cost synergies, a stronger balance sheet, significant tax benefits, and a promising Licensee Liability Rating (LLR) of 3.11.
The transaction's advisors were Integral Capital Markets and Gowling WLG for Persist, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP for Dienerian, and CIBC Capital Markets and Stikeman Elliott LLP for Siguler Guff.
The Gowling WLG team was led by Frank Sur and Greg Peterson, and included Andrew Wong, Robert Carleton and Melanie Condic (corporate/M&A), and Paul Carenza and Malya Amghar (tax).
Stikeman’s team included Benjamin Hudy, Kayla Zachariassen, Samer Chomery, Aya Taher, Diana Werner (Corporate/M&A); Julie D’Avignon, Gordon Masson (Tax); Jennifer McBean (Employment).