A consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) has agreed to acquire the U.S. based Samson Investment Co. for 7.2 billion.

A consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), the private-equity firm, has agreed to acquire the U.S. based Samson Investment Co. for 7.2 billion.

The deal, which can be paled in size only in comparison to the $ 9.4 billion worth of buyout of Centro Properties by Blackstone Group early this year, will help Samson to better leverage its resource and fortify skills of technology and management, Caijing learned from a source close with the deal.

The $7.2 billion will be invested into the shale-based oil and gas both in equity and bonds, a relatively conservative way of investment, the source said. In the whole process, KKR takes on the most equities, the person added.

The deal is still subject to approvals from regulative authorities and is expected to be completed at the end of this year. David Adams, chief executive of Samson, will be CEO of the new company under the name of Samson Resources.

According to the agreement, the consortium will acquire all of Samson’s assets except its onshore Gulf Coast and deep-water Gulf of Mexico assets. The gulf assets will continue to be owned by the Schusterman family, which founded the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company in 1971.

The company has stakes in more than 10,000 wells in the United States, and operates some 4,000 of them, according to the sources.

KKR was founded in 1976 by Henry Kravis and George Roberts. It had managed as much as 58.7 billion U.S. dollars of funds as of September 30, 2011.

Aside from KKR, the consortium includes Itochu Corporation, Natural Gas Partners and Crestview Partners. NGP and Crestview are also private-equity firms focused on energy investments.

Source:caijing