Spinoff gain for CHK

Article Excerpt

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $27.17 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chkenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 664.0 million; Market cap: $18.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) is preparing to spin off its oil-field services division into a separate, publicly traded company. The new firm will be called Seventy Seven Energy and will trade under the SSE symbol. Chesapeake will hand out all of the new company’s shares to its investors in a tax-free transaction. The division, now called Chesapeake Oilfield, provides contract drilling, hydraulic fracturing, equipment rentals, trucking and other services. It accounts for about 13% of Chesapeake’s overall revenue. Chesapeake Oilfield gets 90% of its revenue from Chesapeake Energy and just 10% from outside companies. Operating as a stand-alone firm will let it use its successful history with Chesapeake to attract new customers. More importantly, the spinoff will let Chesapeake take advantage of strong investor interest in oil and gas drilling and servicing stocks. Chesapeake Energy is a buy for aggressive investors. investors…