Shareholders approve $15-billion Whitecap-Veren deal
CALGARY - Whitecap Resources Inc. is on track to join forces with Veren Inc. next week after shareholders of both companies gave their blessing for the $15-billion deal.
Both companies held virtual shareholder meetings to vote on the transaction, each lasting about five minutes.
In a news release, they say 88.7 per cent of Whitecap investors voted to issue Whitecap shares to Veren shareholders under the deal.
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Veren shareholders, meanwhile, voted 99.8 per cent in favour of the combination.
The Court of King's Bench is to hear an application to approve the deal on Thursday, with closing slated for Monday and Veren shares to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The Calgary-based companies announced a friendly deal in March that they say will create the seventh-largest Canadian oil company by production.
The combined company will continue operating under the Whitecap name and management team.
Whitecap is to become the biggest landholder in the Montney and Duvernay shale regions in western Alberta and the second-largest oil producer in Saskatchewan.
CEO Grant Fagerheim warned some staff will not keep their jobs in the new company.
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'The personnel decisions we made were certainly not easy with the large number of quality personnel we had to choose from,' he told shareholders after the vote.
The companies are projecting more than $200 million in cost savings and efficiencies once they come together.
Whitecap will have total daily production of 370,000 barrels with the deal.
Fagerheim said Whitecap has stress-tested the combined company's ability to withstand a US$50 West Texas Intermediate crude price through 2026. The June contract was trading under US$60 on Tuesday.
'We are excited to bring the new Whitecap Resources together with one mission — to drive superior per-share returns to shareholders,' Fagerheim said.
'It's time to get it going.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX: WCP, TSX: VRN)
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