Oil & Gas Exploration & Production · Energy Research & Investment Banking · Capital Formation · Fort Worth, Texas
Executive profile
An oil and gas executive whose career spans exploration and production leadership, energy equity research, investment banking and corporate finance.
Frank D. Bracken, III is Managing Member of Bandera Energy Partners LLC, an oil and gas exploration and production company, and a Partner in Brahma Minerals LLC, a royalty and minerals acquisition company, both based in Fort Worth, Texas.
From 2012 to 2021 he was Chief Executive Officer of Lonestar Resources, Inc., responsible for the company’s strategic direction, its technical team and all capital formation and financing activities. Starting with five employees, he refocused the company on the Eagle Ford Shale, led it through a reverse merger, an OTCQX listing and an initial public offering on NASDAQ, and in October 2021 sold it by merger to NYSE-listed Ranger Oil Company for cash and stock totalling $440 million.
Before Lonestar he spent nearly fifteen years in energy equity research and investment banking, as Managing Director, Oil & Gas Research at Prudential Securities and Senior Managing Director, Oil & Gas Research & Investment Banking at Jefferies & Co. Earlier he was Chief Financial Officer and a Director of Gerrity Oil & Gas Corporation, and began his career in energy research at Fidelity Management & Research, where he became Portfolio Manager of the Select Energy Fund. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Yale University.
Selected transactions & milestones
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Lonestar Resources · 2021
Sale by merger to Ranger Oil Company
$440M
Cash and stock, to NYSE-listed Ranger Oil Company.
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Lonestar Resources
Eagle Ford Shale position
50,000+ net acres
Proved reserves exceeding 100 million barrels of oil equivalent and EBITDAX exceeding $150 million.
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Jefferies & Co.
Equity & unsecured debt offerings
~$4B
Including the initial public offerings of Spinnaker Exploration and W&T Offshore.
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Jefferies & Co.
Acquisition & divestiture processes
~$4.5B
For Energy XXI and Remington Oil & Gas.
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Bandera Energy Partners
Lower Eagle Ford Shale development
$45M
Capital attracted to drill and complete four extended-reach laterals.
Career history
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Brahma Minerals LLC
Partner · Royalty and minerals acquisition company
- Created a proprietary method for identifying future drilling activity before permit applications are filed with the Texas Railroad Commission.
- Mapped structure and isopach in the target formation, and generated and maintains a reserves database for all producing wells in the area of interest.
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Bandera Energy Partners LLC
Managing Member · Oil and gas exploration and production company
- Assembled 3,000 net acres of leasehold in the wet gas window of the Eagle Ford Shale play in La Salle County.
- Attracted $45 million of capital to drill and complete four extended-reach laterals in the Lower Eagle Ford Shale; the leasehold will accommodate four additional laterals.
- Evaluating additional acquisition opportunities.
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Lonestar Resources, Inc.
Chief Executive Officer · Oil and gas exploration and production company
- Hired by the company’s private equity backer to replace the founding CEO and CFO. Divested the Barnett Shale assets and refocused the company on the Eagle Ford Shale.
- Responsible for strategic direction, building a technical team with a differentiated approach to the Eagle Ford Shale, and all capital formation and financing activities.
- Formed an exclusive technical joint venture with Schlumberger, in which the vendor assumed the financial risk of deploying advanced logging, geo-steering and completion technologies. The joint venture produced a proprietary drilling and completion methodology.
- Executed a go-public strategy while U.S. public markets were closed: a reverse merger into an Australian Stock Exchange–listed company, an OTCQX listing, and then an initial public offering on NASDAQ, a preferred equity issuance, a private placement of Senior Unsecured Notes and a Senior Secured Credit Facility led by Citibank, N.A. and J.P. Morgan.
- Led three significant producing property acquisitions which, with organic leasing and a joint venture with a major oil company, built a position exceeding 50,000 net acres, proved reserves exceeding 100 million barrels of oil equivalent and EBITDAX exceeding $150 million.
- Sold the company by merger to NYSE-listed Ranger Oil Company for cash and stock totalling $440 million in October 2021.
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Jefferies & Co., Inc.
Senior Managing Director · Oil and gas research and investment banking
- Senior research coverage of more than 40 U.S. exploration and production stocks and worldwide natural gas macroeconomic research. Received multiple national awards for equity research.
- Moved from equity research into investment banking, completing the initial public offerings of Spinnaker Exploration and W&T Offshore and approximately $4 billion of equity and unsecured debt offerings for multiple clients.
- Managed acquisition and divestiture processes for Energy XXI and Remington Oil & Gas totalling approximately $4.5 billion.
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Prudential Securities, Inc.
Managing Director · Oil and gas research
- Senior research coverage of more than 30 U.S. exploration and production stocks.
- Created a product on worldwide natural gas supply and demand trends and multi-year forward pricing forecasts.
- Received national awards for stock research and natural gas research, while supporting several initial public offerings and multiple secondary equity offerings.
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Gerrity Oil & Gas Corporation
Chief Financial Officer & Director · Oil and gas exploration and production company
- Responsible for the corporate budget, acquisitions and divestitures, and all capital formation functions; member of the Board of Directors.
- Attracted research and investment banking coverage from firms including Goldman Sachs and PaineWebber, and completed public equity offerings and a private placement of preferred equity to finance acquisitions and drilling-based growth.
- Negotiated and closed producing property acquisitions from Martin Energy and Coors Energy in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, and a substantial farm-in with Union Pacific Resources, positioning Gerrity as one of the top three operators in the basin.
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Fidelity Management & Research, Inc.
Research Associate, Research Analyst & Portfolio Manager · Investment management
- Joined as an undergraduate analyst in Fidelity’s two-year program, assigned to the energy sector, building coverage of MLPs, U.S. and Canadian exploration and production companies and major oil companies.
- Promoted to Senior Analyst, with additional responsibility for the analysis of all IPOs for Peter Lynch’s Fidelity Magellan Fund.
- Promoted to Portfolio Manager of the Select Energy Fund.
Areas of expertise
- Oil & Gas E&P
- Eagle Ford Shale
- Energy Equity Research
- Energy Investment Banking
- Capital Formation & Financing
- Acquisitions & Divestitures
- Initial Public Offerings
- Reserves Analysis
- Royalties & Minerals
Education & affiliations
- Yale University
- Bachelor of Arts in History, 1986.
- Yale Alumni School Committee
- Member, 1995–2019.
- TCU Neeley School of Business
- Guest Lecturer, 2020–present.
Strategic discussion
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