Block v. Interoil Corp.

373 F. Supp. 3d 683
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 15, 2019
DocketCASE NO. 3:18-CV-7-S
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 373 F. Supp. 3d 683 (Block v. Interoil Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Block v. Interoil Corp., 373 F. Supp. 3d 683 (N.D. Tex. 2019).

Opinion

KAREN GREN SCHOLER, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

*685Lead Plaintiff Melanie A. Cissone ("Plaintiff") brings this federal securities class action individually and on behalf of former shareholders of InterOil stock against Defendants for violations of § 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act"), 15 U.S.C. § 77l(a)(2). Plaintiff challenges disclosures made by Defendant InterOil Corporation ("InterOil") in an Information Circular distributed to InterOil shareholders. The Information Circular was issued to solicit InterOil shareholders' votes in favor of a proposed acquisition of InterOil by Defendant Exxon Mobil Corporation ("Exxon" and collectively with InterOil, the "Corporate Defendants"). After a competitive auction process involving bids from multiple parties, the Corporate Defendants entered into an amended and restated acquisition agreement (the "Arrangement Agreement"), pursuant to which Exxon would acquire InterOil (the "Arrangement").1 InterOil shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Arrangement Agreement, and the Supreme Court of Yukon approved the Arrangement as fair and reasonable. Plaintiff, however, alleges that the Information Circular contained numerous false statements and omissions that prevented InterOil shareholders from casting an informed vote. As a result, Plaintiff avers that InterOil shareholders suffered substantial harm because the consideration they received from the Arrangement grossly undervalued their InterOil shares.

At issue in this case is whether Plaintiff can now turn to this Court for relief after failing to exercise her right to appear before the Canadian court to challenge the Arrangement and the disclosures in the Information Circular. Defendants argue that Plaintiff's claims should not be relitigated, and that the Court should exercise its discretion and dismiss her claims on international comity grounds. For the reasons that follow, the Court agrees that comity requires deference to the prior Canadian court proceeding, and therefore grants the Corporate Defendants' Motion to Dismiss [ECF No. 35 ] and dismisses Plaintiff's Amended Complaint in its entirety.

I. BACKGROUND

Per Special Order 3-319, this case was transferred from the docket of Judge Ed Kinkeade to the docket of this Court on March 12, 2018. The parties through their counsel appeared before the Court for oral argument on the pending motions on January 15, 2019.

A. InterOil

Prior to its acquisition by Exxon, InterOil was a publicly-traded oil and gas company listed on the New York Stock *686Exchange ("NYSE") engaged in the exploration, appraisal, and development of hydrocarbon resources. Am. Compl. ¶ 7. InterOil was incorporated in Yukon Territory, Canada, and headquartered in Singapore, with additional offices in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea ("PNG"). Id. At the time of the Arrangement, InterOil's two primary assets were: (1) a 36.5 percent interest in petroleum retention license 15 ("PRL 15") in the Gulf Province of PNG, and (2) a right to receive future payments from French oil and gas supermajor TOTAL, S.A. ("Total"), arising from Total's 2014 purchase from InterOil of a 40.19 percent license interest in the PRL 15 (the "Total Payments"). Id. ¶¶ 22, 44. PRL 15 covers an area of 763 square kilometers. Id. ¶ 22. The Elk-Antelope Fields are located within PRL 15. Id. Total assumed operations of PRL 15 on August 1, 2015. Id. at n.1. The value of both assets is directly tied to the amount of resources in the Elk-Antelope Fields and/or estimates of such resources. Id. ¶ 44. InterOil did not expect commercialization of the PRL 15 fields until approximately 2023. Defs.' App. 174-75.

Under the Total Payments, InterOil shareholders would potentially receive three contingent payments based primarily on certified resource estimates for the Elk-Antelope Fields. Am. Compl. ¶ 45. The first payment would be based on the Interim Resource Certification, which was a process to certify the size of the resources in the Elk-Antelope Fields carried out by two independent resource certifiers. Id. InterOil engaged GLJ Petroleum Consultants, Ltd. ("GLJ"), an independent, third-party evaluator, to prepare annual contingent resource estimates for the Elk-Antelope Fields since at least 2009. Id. ¶ 54; see also Defs.' App. 173, 307. The second and third payments would be based on resource certifications that relied on actual resources recovered from the Elk-Antelope Fields. Am. Compl. ¶ 46.

B. Acquisition by Exxon

In 2015, the InterOil board of directors (the "Board") decided to explore the sale of minority interests in some of InterOil's assets. Id. ¶ 26. In late 2015, the Board approached a select group of four oil and gas companies about a possible transaction: Exxon, Oil Search Limited ("Oil Search"), "Party B" (as referred to in the Information Circular), and a party that declined to participate. Id. On March 1, 2016, InterOil signed a confidentiality agreement with Exxon concerning a possible whole-company acquisition. Id. ¶ 28. On March 11 and March 14, 2016, respectively, both Party B and Oil Search submitted non-binding indicative proposals to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of InterOil. Id. ¶ 29. With three proposals on the table, the Board authorized management and InterOil's advisors to continue discussions with Exxon, Party B, and Oil Search, and appointed the Transaction Committee. Id.

Ultimately, Party B decided not to revise its offer, but both Oil Search and Exxon submitted revised, non-binding proposals. Id. ¶ 30. On May 20, 2016, InterOil announced that it had entered into an agreement with Oil Search for Oil Search to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of InterOil. Id. On June 23, 2016, InterOil received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Exxon to acquire InterOil. Id. ¶ 31. In light of the topping bid from Exxon and Oil Search's failure to revise its offer, InterOil terminated the Oil Search transaction, paid a $ 60 million termination fee to Oil Search, and entered into an acquisition agreement with Exxon (the "Original Arrangement Agreement"). Id.

*687Under the terms of the Original Arrangement Agreement, Exxon would acquire all issued and outstanding common shares of InterOil for (i) $ 45.00 per InterOil share payable in Exxon shares, and (ii) a contingent resource payment ("CRP") for $ 7.07 per InterOil share for each trillion cubic feet equivalent ("tcfe") of PRL 2C Resources above 6.2 tcfe, up to a maximum of 10 tcfe.2 Id. ¶ 32. No additional payment would be made for PRL 2C Resources in excess of 10 tcfe. Id. The Original Arrangement Agreement provided that the InterOil shares would be acquired pursuant to a statutory plan of arrangement under Yukon Law (the "Original Arrangement"). Id. ¶ 33. For closing to occur, the Supreme Court of Yukon was required to find that the Original Arrangement was "fair and reasonable." Id.

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373 F. Supp. 3d 683, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/block-v-interoil-corp-txnd-2019.