Austin American-Statesman

Austin firm plans stock offering

USA Compressio­n aims to raise $150M to settle credit obligation­s.

- By Dan Zehr dzehr@statesman.com Contact Dan Zehr at 512-445-3797.

USA Compressio­n Partners LP and two of its existing investors plan to sell 6.6 million common shares in a deal that could raise about $150 million for the company, according to a document filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filing, the Austin-based firm will offer 5.6 million new shares and use its proceeds to pay down existing credit obligation­s and for general business purposes.

The company, which provides gas-compressio­n equipment and services to oil and gas companies, said its current borrowing under the credit facility is roughly $555 million, funds it used to expand its gas-compressio­n fleet and for other business purposes.

At Tuesday’s closing stock price of $26.77, the new stock offering would raise about $150 million for the firm, before subtractin­g costs associated with the offer.

In addition to USA Compressio­n’s offer, two of its current investors — Argonaut Private Equity and Jason Mar- tin — plan to sell 1 million shares between them. They collective­ly could sell up to 990,000 more shares if underwrite­rs choose to purchase additional shares.

USA Compressio­n will not receive any of the proceeds from the investors’ offerings, according to the securities filing.

USA Compressio­n Partners raised $198 million in a January 2013 initial public offering. In 2013, the company had record revenue of $152.9 million, up 28.7 percent from $118.8 million in 2012. Net income more than doubled, to $11.1 million from $4.5 million.

For the first quarter of this year, USA Compressio­n Partners’ revenue rose 54 percent to $50.2 million, compared with $32.6 million in the same quarter last year.

The company had net income of $3.9 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with net income of $4.4 million, or 12 cents per share, for the same period last year.

Founded in 1998, USA Compressio­n Partners is one of the largest gas-compressio­n service providers in the nation. It leases systems that compress natural gas to create the pressure needed for production and transporta­tion.

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