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Robert Chaisson may be the happiest man in Calgary.

Amid the impenetrable gloom descending on Canada’s oil capital, the chief executive officer of privately owned Beaumont Energy Inc. sold the company to Whitecap Resources Inc. last week for $587-million — it was, said one analyst, surprisingly a “full price” — when oil prices were struggling to stay above US$50 a barrel.

“We are pretty excited about the deal, yes, for sure,” Mr. Chaisson said in an interview from his Calgary office on Tuesday.

The acquisition price of $115,200 per producing barrel of oil equivalent per day is eye-brow raising for a light oil play and higher than the $100,000 boepd for North American plays during the same time last year. The acquisitive Whitecap paid 2.5 times the value of the company compared to the 2.1 times it was trading pre-transaction, according to one analyst.

“The deal is actually dilutive [for Whitecap], a little surprising in this market, given current market conditions, management’s track record, and recent transactions,” Jeremy McCrea, analyst at AltaCorp Capital Inc., said in a note to clients.

Mr. Chaisson and his team had bought the Viking light oil resource in the Kerrobert area of Saskatchewan in 2012 from a major operator for $110-million.

“I couldn’t believe it was for sale, and when we knew it was for sale, we knew within three hours exactly what we are going to do to that pool,” said Mr. Chaisson, noting there were 27 years of data available on the property.

“We don’t view ourselves as really smart guys, we are just good plumbers.”

The ‘plumbing’ involved a technique called waterflooding — the use of water injection to stimulate production from oil reserves — which helped the company quickly ramp up production to slightly more than 5,100 boepd from a mere 600 boepd before the great oil price slide.

“In two and a half years we managed to waterflood 17 sections of land and 140 injection wells, which is not typically something a public company can do that fast, because you are spending money on water injection and wells and not getting any reserves ahead or production increases.”

But that push gave the company a “leg up” on publicly listed juniors in the merger and acquisition cycle that’s expected to gather pace amid low commodity prices.

Many companies had already been circling Beaumont’s Kerrobert, given the scope of the property.

“Calgary is a very small oil patch,” Mr. Chaisson said. “Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows what everybody else is doing.”

Eventually it was Whitecap, a leader in waterflooding, which agreed to buy the company for $587 million including debt of $70.5 million debt, by issuing equity at 0.4 Whitecap common shares per Beaumont share. The deal also gave Beaumont shareholders the option to take up to $103.4 -million in cash consideration. Closing is expected May 8, subject to a shareholder vote.

This is Mr. Chaisson eighth deal, but not his biggest.

“We have been turning over our private companies every two and half year lately,” said the serial entrepreneur.

Mr. Chaisson and his team — including geologists, engineers and chief operating officer Boyd Macdonald (a friend since eighth grade in Prince Edward Island) — have now generated $3-billion in capital from those eight transactions.

Two of the team’s major deals were the sale of Cutpick Energy to Crescent Point Energy Corp. in May 2012 for $425-million; and Amber Energy, acquired by Alberta Energy Co. in late 1998 for $771-million.

Mr. Chaisson said he will take some time off after the deal, but may be back for more if “something comes up that tweaks our fancy.”

“The boys will get back together in the fall and see what’s out there.”

There may opportunities too good to miss as companies will be forced to sell their best assets, such as Kerrobert, to pay down debt in the current low-price environment.

“I think it’s a great time now, and it is going to get a little better over the next few months,” Mr. Chaisson said.

Great for buyers, that is.

@ Financial Post