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Blackstone Fund Acquires Five Portugal Retail Assets for Multi
2014-12-02 10:35:47.387 GMT


By Neil Callanan
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Real Estate Partners
Europe IV bought the properties from Novo Banco Group funds,
according to a statement from the New York-based company.
* Properties totaling 65,000 sq. m. (700,000 sq ft.) bought
for Multi Corp., Blackstone’s European retail platform that
owns or manages 180 shopping centers
* Assets are principally in or near Lisbon and have dominant
market positions: statement
* Blackstone also agreed first logistics acquisition in
Portugal for its Logicor platform, it said in separate
statement
* Five assets, also acquired from funds managed by Novo Banco,
Group; have 185,000 sq m. of warehouse space

For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO>
First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the reporter on this story:
Neil Callanan in London at +44-20-3525-8274 or
ncallanan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Blackman at +49-30-70010-6223 or
ablackman@bloomberg.net

Shale Pioneer Hamm Sees Less Drilling After Losing $12 Billion
2014-12-02 05:00:03.0 GMT


By Bradley Olson
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, a
founding father of the U.S. shale boom whose personal fortune
has fallen by more than half in the past three months, said U.S.
drilling will slow as producers cut back amid falling oil
prices.
Declining activity from Texas to North Dakota won’t be as
harmful to the industry as some have feared, the chairman and
chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc. said.
OPEC’s refusal to curb output last week bodes well for U.S.
producers that can outlast countries in the cartel, which depend
on higher oil prices.
“Will this industry slow down? Certainly,” Hamm said
yesterday in a telephone interview. “Nobody’s going to go out
there and drill areas, exploration areas and other areas, at a
loss. They’ll pull back and won’t drill it until the price
recovers. That’s the way it ought to be.”
Investors have been spooked as oil has declined to a five-
year low. The downturn comes after prices above $100 a barrel
sparked a boom in output from U.S. shale formations that helped
create a glut of supply.
Hamm’s wealth, which is largely tied to the fate of
Oklahoma City-based Continental, has fallen by more than $12
billion in three months, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index.

Bouncing Back

Hamm, who helped discover the potential of North Dakota’s
Bakken formation, predicted a swift recovery in oil prices,
which have declined more than 36 percent since June as Saudi
Arabia and its allies in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries refused to cut production last week to help re-balance
the market.
The company said last month it’s sold nearly all its hedges
through 2016, in a bet on a recovery in prices. West Texas
Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, fell below $65 a barrel
yesterday before settling up 4.3 percent to $69.
Drillers from Texas to North Dakota are pumping the most in
three decades, with many betting they can outlast Venezuela,
Iran and other nations that need higher oil prices to fund
government budgets.
The price drop has come about more because of “rhetoric”
from Saudi Arabia than fundamentals of supply and demand, Hamm
said. While prices are low, shale producers have the upper hand,
he said.
“We can adjust quickly,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to
adjust companies than it is for countries to adjust. When you’ve
got people starving or social policies within countries that
people are used to, it’s hard to adjust those.”

‘Calm Down’

Continental declined 1.9 percent to $40.20 yesterday in New
York, down 50 percent from its August high. An index of oil and
gas producers on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has fallen 28
percent since June 20, when U.S. crude closed at a 2014 high of
$107.26 a barrel.
Hamm has said in the past that his company can turn a
profit at prices of $50 a barrel. Continental plans to boost
output by as much as 29 percent next year, while holding
spending at 2014 levels, according to a Nov. 6 company
presentation. Hamm declined to say how those plans may change if
prices fall further.
In the most profitable areas of the Bakken, producers can
turn a profit on average with oil prices above $65.03 a barrel,
according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Prices may fall to
$50 a barrel by early next year, according to Wolfe Research
LLC.
“This is a bump in the road, a correction, an adjustment
that we’re going through right now,” Hamm said. People “need
to calm down, take the long view and there’s certainly no need
to panic at this point or any point.”

For Related News and Information:
Oil at $40 Possible as Market Transforms Caracas to Tehran (2)
OPEC Refusal Means Oil Industry’s Weakest Producers Left Behind
U.S. Resolved to Drill On as Shale Boom Dims OPEC’s Power (1)
Continental news: CLR US <Equity> CN BN <GO>
Continental relative performance: CLR US <Equity> COMP D <GO>
S&P E&P Index: S5OILP <Index> COMP D <GO>
Bloomberg Industries on shale plays: BI NGAS <GO>
Commodities map: BMAP<GO>

--With assistance from Joe Carroll in Chicago.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Bradley Olson in Houston at +1-713-547-8408 or
bradleyolson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at +1-214-954-9455 or
susanwarren@bloomberg.net
Andrew Hobbs

BN 12/02 08:12 *SAIPEM DOESN'T SET OPENING PRICE, INDICATED 8% LOWER

*SAIPEM DOESN’T SET OPENING PRICE, INDICATED 8% LOWER
2014-12-02 08:12:24.630 GMT

--CHIARA REMONDINI

-0- Dec/02/2014 08:12 GMT