Energy Chutzpah

This blog's old friend, Aubrey McClendon, is back (he left Chesapeake Energy at the end of Marcy) and looking to raise $1 billion for his new energy venture, American Energy Partners, LP.  The Wall Street Journal has the details.  Here a few of the passages that stood out to me:

Now that he is pitching Wall Street on his new energy company, Mr. McClendon is asking for a lot of money, an unusually large slice of profits and a high degree of control over his business.

It isn't clear he will get what he wants this time.

In April, after setting up shop in a six-story Oklahoma City building and conducting informal meetings with prospective backers, Mr. McClendon, 53 years old, sent a six-page letter to about a dozen private-equity firms.

The letter said that Mr. McClendon wants to raise between $2 billion and $3 billion of "initial equity capital" for his new exploration-and-production company, American Energy Partners LP.

It sounds like he is asking for complete control of the new investment vehicle and a 50% profit participation.  Further in the article was this section:

Some who have invested with Mr. McClendon in past energy deals or dealt with him on other matters said his strategy may be to ask for a lot, even if some investors blanch, and see what he has to settle for when the time comes to cut a deal.

For now, some private-equity investors said they aren't reaching for their checkbooks.

Several investors who received the letter said they were taken aback by Mr. McClendon's terms. Some of these investors said their own guidelines may prevent them from investing with someone maintaining as much control over a business as Mr. McClendon's letter suggests he would have.

"The number was aggressive and the terms were aggressive," said one energy investor who has regular dealings with Mr. McClendon.

It didn't take long for McClendon to get back to raising capital, and his penchant for self-interest seems unabashed.