Genie Energy to start exchange offer for series 2012-A preferreds

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, May 8 - Genie Energy Ltd. announced that it will offer to exchange up to 5 million shares of its class B common stock for its series 2012-A preferred stock.

"We firmly believe that our common stock is undervalued by the market at today's prices," chairman and chief executive officer Howard Jonas said in a press release.

"Using our preferred stock to buy back common stock offers a potential win-win for Genie and our stockholders with different outlooks and investment approaches."

The company said it will offer one newly issued preferred for each class B share tendered.

In 2012 and 2013, Genie completed exchange offers that resulted in the issuance of 1,917,967 of the preferreds.

The announced offer will cover up to roughly 25% of the company's outstanding stock, the release noted.

Jonas, the company's controlling stockholder, will not exchange shares of common stock he owns or controls in this offer.

The series 2012-A preferreds have a liquidation preference of $8.50 per share and dividend rights that are senior to distributions on the common stock in an annual amount of $0.6375 per share.

Newark-based Genie Energy consists of IDT Energy and Genie Oil and Gas. IDT Energy supplies electricity and natural gas to residential and small business customers. Genie Oil and Gas makes technologies to produce transportation fuels from oil shale and other unconventional fuel resources. The company's shares (NYSE: GNE) closed at $7.64 per share on May 7.

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