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Murphy Oil (MUR) to Partly Redeem 6.875% Senior Notes Due 2024

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Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR - Free Report) announces plans to redeem 6.875% senior notes worth $150 million (due 2024) on Aug 16. The notes will be redeemed at a premium and selected per the procedures of The Depository Trust Company.

The redemption price is fixed at 101.719% of the principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest. This move will reduce the company’s debt-servicing costs.

The total size of 6.875% senior notes was $542 million at the end of 2020, of which $150 million or 27.7% will be redeemed. This redemption will save $10.3 million interest expenses, annually.

Debt Position

The company did not have any significant debt maturity until June 2022 and by partially redeeming the outstanding senior notes now, it will strengthen its balance sheet even more.

In the March quarter, it issued 6.375% senior notes worth $550 million with a due date in 2028. The company utilized these proceeds along with the cash on hand or borrowings under its revolving credit facility or a combination of both to redeem $576.4 million of senior notes due 2022. It reduced debt by 8% in the first quarter and plans to witness a decline of another 15% this year. By 2024, it intends to lower debt by $1.4 billion.

Currently, its total debt-to-total-capital ratio is 40.20, marginally lower than its December-end figure of 40.48. Long-term debt summed $2,755.6 million on Mar 31, 2021 compared with $2,988.1 million as of Dec 31, 2020.

Murphy Oil has liquidity worth $1.8 billion as of Mar 31, 2021, which is sufficient to meet its short-term obligations. This indicates that the company will be able to meet its near-term debt load without any difficulty.

Peer Moves

Other companies from the same sector are also making efforts to either refinance or reduce debt. Devon Energy Corporation (DVN - Free Report) intends to repurchase $1.5 billion debt by 2021 end, which is expected to lower its interest expenses by $75 million, annually.

In June, Plains All Pipeline L.P. (PAA - Free Report) entered into a definite agreement to sell Pine Prairie and Southern Pines natural gas storage facilities for $850 million to a unit of Hartree Partners, LP. It will use some portion of the funds from the sale of non-core assets to decrease its debt levels.

SunCoke Energy, Inc. (SXC - Free Report) priced its offering of senior secured notes worth $500 million due Jun 30, 2029, to redeem its unit SunCoke Energy Partners Finance Corp.'s outstanding 7.500% senior unsecured notes due 2025, which it had unconditionally guaranteed.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Murphy Oil currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In the past three months, shares of the company have rallied 27.7%, outperforming the industry’s 17.3% growth.

Three Months Price Performance

Zacks Investment Research

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