EQT to Buy Range Resources in 13 Billion Dollar Stock Swap

EQT Corp said on Monday it would acquire Range Resources in an all-stock deal, in a stock swap worth nearly 13 billion dollars. The companies called the combined business the largest vertically integrated natural gas producer in the United States.

Range shareholders will receive 0.987 shares of EQT stock for each share they hold. EQT would issue shares worth about 54.91 dollars for each Range share, based on Friday's closing price. That is a premium of about 21 percent to Friday's closing price of 45.52 dollars for Range, the Fort Worth, Texas company. Reuters calculated the equity value of the deal at about 12.83 billion dollars, based on Range Resources' 233.68 million shares outstanding, using LSEG data. The combined company would have a pro forma enterprise value topping 50 billion dollars, and Reuters valued the deal at more than 50 billion dollars including debt.

Ownership and leadership

EQT shareholders will own about 73 percent of the combined company, while Range investors will hold the remaining 27 percent. Two representatives from Range, including chief executive Dennis Degner, will join EQT's board of directors on closing. EQT's executive management team will lead the combined company, and headquarters will remain in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where EQT is based.

EQT chief executive Toby Rice said: "As the lowest-cost natural gas producer in the industry, supported by multiple decades of high-quality inventory, the combined company will offer exceptional resilience through commodity cycles while maintaining significant upside to strengthening natural gas fundamentals."

Scale in the Appalachian Basin

The combined company will produce more than 9 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day. It will control nearly 3 million net acres in the Appalachian Basin, with more than 30 years of drilling inventory and about 3,700 miles of midstream infrastructure. EQT said the deal would create the largest and only vertically integrated natural gas producer in the United States. The combined company will focus on the Appalachian Basin, America's largest natural gas producing region.

EQT expects to generate 325 million dollars of base annual synergies within two years, across corporate, operations and commodities marketing. The combined company projects cumulative free cash flow of around 20 billion dollars over the next five years at recent strip pricing.

Market reaction and closing

Range shares rose in premarket trading after the announcement. The Wall Street Journal reported Range shares up 10 percent to 50.12 dollars, while shares of EQT slipped 2 percent to 54.49 dollars, at the time of its report. In a separate premarket reading at a different moment, Reuters reported EQT shares down 4.6 percent while Range Resources shares were up 10.1 percent.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. Reuters reported that growing demand for natural gas from data centres has improved the outlook for United States natural gas, prompting producers to pursue bigger outputs, deeper drilling inventories and stronger marketing capabilities.