Week in review
BY ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Sunday, February 17, 2013
2/17/13 at 7:57 AM
Oil boom sparks merger activity across nation
The boom in unconventional oil and gas sparked high-level merger and acquisition activity across the nation last year, according to a Deloitte report released Monday.
Tulsa's own energy sector was no less active in 2012, with at least 15 major deals reported. Williams Partners LP, Unit Corp., NGL Energy Partners, Apache Corp, Caballo Energy LLC and others bought or sold in multimillion-dollar and even billion-dollar transactions.
"Deal activity was healthy across the board," said David Perkins, managing director of Tulsa-based Acquisition Advisors, which helped complete five local transactions in the oil and gas sector.
The biggest Tulsa-related M&A action was Apache Corp.'s $2.85 billion buyout of Cordillera Energy Partners III LLC's 254,000 net acres in the Anadarko Basin. The most recent major acquisition was Tulsa-based Williams Cos. Inc. taking a $2.16 billion stake in Oklahoma City-based Access Midstream Partners LP. The deal closed last month.
- ROD WALTON, World Staff Writer
First Presbyterian buys Avanti from Kanbar
The Avanti Building, the southernmost property in the Kanbar portfolio of downtown office holdings, has been sold to First Presbyterian Church for $2.1 million.
Plans for the vacant, six-story structure at 810 S. Cincinnati Ave. have yet to be determined, said Steve Caldwell, director of operations for First Presbyterian Church.
"We're looking at different possible uses for the building, but we haven't arrived at any final decisions," he said Tuesday.
California inventor and philanthropist Maurice Kanbar purchased the building in 2005 for $2.4 million.
- ROBERT EVATT, World Staff Writer
Tulsa airports hope to shed most of city links
Tulsa International Airport and Jones Riverside Airport are on the way to separating most operations from the city of Tulsa.
The Tulsa Airport Authority and Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust on Thursday approved a new lease with the city for airport land and facilities that would bring 150 employees under the sway of the airport boards and move city-provided services in-house.
Airport officials projected the move will save the facilities more than $500,000 a year by moving many of the services they receive from the city under the umbrella of airport staff.
The plan has been presented to the Tulsa City Council, but a new lease and contract for the airport property only requires the approval of Mayor Dewey Bartlett, airport officials said.
- KYLE ARNOLD, World Staff Writer
Tulsa home foreclosure rate falls last month
The number of Tulsa-area homeowners defaulting on their loans continued to fall last month.
RealtyTrac Inc., a data service, reports that 491 foreclosure proceedings were initiated in January across metro Tulsa, resulting in a foreclosure rate of one for every 829 households.
That's 13.4 percent below December and 12.3 percent below January 2012.
By comparison, the national foreclosure rate of one for every 869 households was down 7.2 percent for the month and 28.5 percent from a year ago.
RealtyTrac noted that the national number represents a six-year low.
Oklahoma's rate of one for every 1,552 homes, down 16.2 percent for the month and 21.4 percent from January 2012, gives the state the 28th highest foreclosure rate in the nation.
Daren Blomquist, vice president of Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, said the nationwide drop was largely due to a new California law that imposes stricter standards on financial institutions seeking to foreclose on property owners.
- ROBERT EVATT, World Staff Writer
Associated Images:
Debra Murray (left), Brenda Sartell and Kevin Sartell work the assembly line as they make helium-filled balloon bouquets for Valentine's Day at Absolutely Balloons on Monday. A national shortage in helium put the gas in short supply for one of the store's biggest sales days of the year. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World
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