What I've Been Buying, Coronavirus Edition

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, but if you're interested, here are some thoughts on a few current positions where I've added in recent weeks, some I've bought above where we're trading today, some below.  I probably started averaging down in some of these too soon, eaten some humble pie and have slowed my activity down significantly.  I assume we'll have more opportunities as it'll take awhile for the new economic reality to work its way through our system, credit agreements will need to be amended, etc.  There will be pot holes and bankruptcies, one change from recent years is we're likely to start to see bankruptcy reorgs that are the "good business, bad balance sheet" type that have been rare lately.  Things will likely get worse, so treat this more as a watchlist than a buylist.

Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC)
I'm a long time HHC bull, my pride is hurting here at the moment, 4 of 5 of HHC's primary markets have significant near term challenges: 1) NYC is front and center of the pandemic in the U.S., likely further pushing back (I've lost count how many times now) the stabilization date of the Seaport development; 2) Houston is dealing with yet another crash in oil prices just weeks after HHC made what they describe as the "largest acquisition in the company's history" by buying Occidental Petroleum's office buildings; 3) Nevada casinos are closed indefinitely, that will have its ripple effects through the Las Vegas service based economy and slowing the development of Summerlin; 4) Similarly but maybe less impacted, Honolulu will see significantly less tourism in 2020 than it did 2019, but more importantly a fall in financial markets doesn't lead to more wealthy people purchasing vacation beach condos.  Only Columbia, MD is mostly spared due to its connection to government services jobs.

The stock has bounced back slightly, but for a while there was trading below $40 which is where it was following the spin-off from GGP almost a decade ago, I was able to add a bit there, but still find the shares incredible cheap around $50.  In early 2019, I pegged the value of the land at ~$2.35B after subtracting out land level debt using a straight line NPV approach with a 10% discount rate, sure the near term sales might be low, but the nature of raw land is long term and Nevada and Texas remain attractive states for corporate relocations due to low/no taxes and friendly regulations.  HHC has $1B in corporate level debt, so just the land portfolio is worth ~$1.35B or about $35/share, obviously this is a somewhat silly back of the envelope valuation exercise that doesn't include overhead, etc.  But sort of thinking about what has happened since the spin-off a decade ago, HHC lays out the development activity in aggregate since then in their 10-K:

We have completed the development of over 5.2 million square feet of office and retail operating properties, 2,516 multi-family units and 909 hospitality keys since 2011. Excluding land which we own, we have invested approximately $2.0 billion in these developments, which is projected to generate a 9.5% yield on cost, or $192.7 million per year of NOI upon stabilization. At today’s market cap rates, this implies value creation to our shareholders in excess of $1.0 billion. Our investment of approximately $444.9 million of cash equity in our development projects since inception, which is computed as total costs excluding land less the related construction debt, is projected to generate a 25.5% return on cash equity assuming a 5.0% cost of debt, which approximates our weighted-average cost. These investments and returns exclude condominium development as well as projects under construction such as the Seaport District. We exclude condominium developments since they do not result in recurring NOI, and we exclude projects under development due to the wider range of NOI they are expected to generate upon stabilization. In Ward Village, we have either opened or have under construction 2,697 condominium units, which have approximately 89.8% units sold as of December 31, 2019 at a targeted profit margin, excluding land costs, of 23.6% or $747.3 million.

If we go back to 2015 and early 2016 when oil collapsed from around $100, there was a lot of anxiety about Houston office space and HHC dropped from ~$150 to ~$80 in a few months, but in the aftermath of the drop, HHC's Woodlands sub-market performed fairly well, their last speculatively built office property (Three Hughes Landing) still hasn't reached stabilization 4 years later, but the bottom didn't fall out either.  Not to directly compare the two time periods, this oil route seems worse for U.S. producers as it coincides with a demand shock due to coronavirus, but Houston is a major metropolitan market (it's not say, Midland TX or OKC) and the economy will evolve over time.  The Occidental office property buy certainly looks like unfortunate timing, but the bulk of the purchase is centered in the Woodlands giving them additional control over the sub-market, the Houston Energy Corridor former OXY campus was only ~10% of the purchase price and not a significant drag if they can't sell it in a year or three.  OXY's equity is certainly in question, the company signed a 13 year sale leaseback with HHC when the transaction happened, but even a reorged OXY will need office space, and HHC recently leased some empty space in the second office tower in the Woodlands to OXY's midstream company, WES.  HHC is taking a portion of the remaining space for themselves as they move their corporate headquarters to Houston, so in reality, there isn't a lot of current vacancy in HHC's Houston offie portfolio.

I'm less worried about Ward Village in Honolulu or Summerlin in Las Vegas, Summerlin is likely to have a terrible year, coronavirus feels temporary to me when you take a longer view, whereas domestic oil production might not be viable for many years.  The Seaport has always been a bit of a clown show, it was former management's pet project, there might be more willingness now to part with it for a reasonable offer that eliminates much of the risk/earnings volatility from HHC results.

Par Pacific Holdings (PARR)
Similarly, owning a refining business is tough here, if we just had the supply shock due to the OPEC+ breakup then refiners might be sitting pretty with cheap crude and strong gasoline demand, but with everyone staying in their homes and not commuting to work or traveling, gasoline and jet fuel demand have dropped almost as much as hotel occupancy.

Quick recap, Par Pacific is part of Sam Zell's empire, he doesn't technically control the company or sit on the board, but he owns a significant stake and the PARR management team is made up of former members of his family office - Equity Investments.  Over the last several years they've bulked up their operation to include three refineries, related logistics and a growing retail presence, focusing on niche/isolated markets.  Following a small tuck-in acquisition, they're the only refining presence in Hawaii and thus exposed to their tourism market via jet fuel sales.  They've got a turnaround scheduled for later this year in Hawaii which could be a blessing in disguise as it takes supply offline in that market just when there is a lack of demand.  But in a normalized year, Par Pacific should have a current run rate of approximately $225-250MM (after the next 12 months, PARR won't have a scheduled turnaround for several years), below is the breakdown of EBITDA between their business lines and sort of a reasonable, more rational market multiple for each.  It could take us a while to get there, but management on their last call (guessing there will be a lot of cringing across many management teams when they play back their comments on Q4 earnings calls) said that PARR is "today" a $3/share free cash flow business.  Obviously it won't be this year, but that's how the owners/managers of the business think of the earnings power.

It currently trades for $7-8/share, so that looks like a silly price and maybe it is because things are really different this time.  PARR also has ~$1.5B in NOLs that should shield it from ever paying cash taxes in the foreseeable future (not that it'll be an issue this year) and a stake in a natural gas E&P, Laramie Energy, but I mentally wrote off that investment a long time ago.  Given the natural gas price environment, Laramie has no active rigs, is reportedly cash flow positive and won't require additional investment from PARR to keep it a going concern, so we can sort of sidecar it.

PARR is a small cap and thus only has a relatively short term option chain with the latest expiration being in September.  Moving up market cap, Marathon Petroleum (MPC) is a similarly constructed downstream business with refining, midstream and retail operations that has January 2022 LEAPs available.  Marathon has been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management to abandon their conglomerate structure and separate into three businesses: 1) retail (which operates the Speedway brand of gas stations/convenience stores); 2) midstream (which is publicly traded as MPLX, MPC owns 63% of MPLX and owns the general partner); 3) and the remaining refining operations.  The company recently rejected the idea of converting MPLX into a C-Corp and spinning MPC's MPLX units out to investors, but they are still committed to separating the Speedway retail business off by year end.  Convenience store 7-Eleven's owners, Seven & i Holdings, recently scrapped a deal to buy Speedway for $22B citing coronavirus and valuation concerns.  If you assume a $15B valuation for Speedway and back out the MPLX shares and consolidated debt, the remaining refining business is something like a $9B EV (with no value given to the MPLX GP) for a ~$5B EBITDA business in normal times.  There's also reason to believe (well maybe) that MPLX is undervalued as well as they're exploring selling their gathering and processing business segment for $15B which represents 1/3 of EBITDA.  The EV of MPLX is ~$34B, and the remaining logistics and storage business should fetch a considerably higher multiple.  I threw some speculative money at out of the money calls, maybe by early 2022 the world is a little more sane, until then I don't really plan on following the day-to-day swings in MPC's share price.

Five Star Senior Living (FVE)
Five Star is debt free (besides a small mortgage on the owned facilities), has a significant net cash position for its size and receives what should be a reliable management fee off of revenue.  Even if we do see small changes in occupancy (for morbid corona related reasons), FVE isn't as exposed to the high fixed cost structure of owning the senior living properties or leasing them.  FVE shares are trading below where they sold off when it was dumped following the distribution to DHC shareholders.  While there is certainly some operational or reputation risk associated with operating senior living facilities during such a high-risk time for the elderly, if Five Star can avoid a Kirkland WA style outbreak, their business should be positioned well and is extremely cheap.  We're still dealing with swag proforma estimates from management as the new structure is only a few months old, but at the EBITDA midpoint of $25MM, that should generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $14MM in FCF for about a 6.4x multiple at the current price of $3, plus you get the owned real estate and $30+ million of cash on a $90MM market cap company.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (WH)
Wyndham Hotels generates sales primarily on franchise fees based on hotel revenues (93% of their business) compared to their upscale hotel brand peers like Marriott (MAR) or Hilton (HLT) which have significant hotel management businesses where they get paid a percentage of hotel level profits and employ the workforce.  During good times, the management company model is better but during bad/terrible, I'd rather have the franchise model, hotel revenues will certainly be a fraction of what they were last year, but they won't be negative like profits.  Wyndham's typical hotel is an economy or midscale hotel with limited business or convention business and less reliance on food & beverage -- convention/conference business might take a while to recover as people stay cautious on large events, and if business travel does pick back up, maybe business travelers move down in hotel segment for a period of time.  Additionally, the typical Wyndham branded hotel owner is a mom or pop who owns just the one hotel, they likely got their financing from a local bank or the SBA who might be more willing to work with them on amendments/forbearance versus a large syndicate of lenders like the larger lodging REITs.  They do have a financial covenant of 5x EBITDA that is at risk, maybe other credit folks could chime in here, but I imagine by the time the TTM month EBITDA trips that covenant we might be back on the other side and WH could work with their creditors.  I did buy a little bit of shares, but also calls as to limit my downside if things do go south with their balance sheet.

My watchlist - quick blurbs, maybe turn into full posts if I buy:

• Exantas Capital (XAN): This is the former Resource Capital (RSO) that I owned for a couple years after C-III took over the management, cut the dividend, and reorganized the assets to a cleaner mortgage REIT.  XAN funds its assets in two ways, one is through repurchase agreements and the other is through CRE CLOs.  CRE CLOs are term financing and not mark-to-market, however the repurchase facilities are mark-to-market and Exantas failed to meet margin calls on their CMBS portfolio this week, sending the preferred and common cratering.  I'm maybe too optimistic on the commercial real estate market (HHC bull) but I think a lot of these loans get amended and Exantas might find its way out of this mess, however it won't be without some pain.  The CRE CLOs might end up tripping their OC tests and shutting off cash flows to the junior notes and equity which is owned by Exantas, so I'm on the side lines for now.  Additionally, like most CRE CLOs, these are "transitional loans" meant to fund a development project, say renovate an apartment building and move it up market, something like that.  So if the market shuts down, the borrower might not be in a financial position to complete said project or refinance into longer term financing, sticking XAN with the exposure longer than expected.
• iStar (STAR): I want to revisit another former holding in iStar, their SAFE ground lease business has grown far larger than I imagined (although likely very overvalued), taking SAFE at market value you could make a case that the legacy business that I originally liked is very cheap.  But they do have a CRE finance arm similar to XAN, but more concentrated on construction lending in major markets (NYC and Miami IIRC) that could be a problem.  Worth looking into given the SAFE stake and the management contract associated with SAFE.
• NexPoint Residential Trust (NXRT):  Another former REIT holding of mine, this is one that sort of got away, I'll get the exact numbers wrong but it spun off from a closed end fund at ~$11 and I sold somewhere around $22, not too far from where it is trading today at $25, a few months ago it was $52.  I love the strategy, they acquire garden style Class B apartments in the sun belt, put a little money into them to move up market a touch, maybe "B+", this investment is very high return on invested capital and then they'll sell, recycle the funds and do it all over again.  Sure their tenant base might have some credit issues in the next year, but demographic trends are still in the sun belt's favor, working class people will need reasonably affordable housing in the future, supply is relatively constrained, and this management team (it is external) has proven they can execute on their strategy.

Disclosure: I own shares of HHC, PARR, FVE, WH (and calls) and MPC 2022 LEAPs

Par Pacific Holdings: Wyoming Refining Acquisition, Rights Offering

I wrote a poorly timed update of Par Pacific Holdings about six weeks ago, since then the shares have dropped over 20% as crack spreads continued to tighten at the same time as Par Pacific's principle refinery asset in Hawaii is shutting down for a period to undergo significant maintenance.  Crack spreads are of course volatile, however management has guided to the Hawaiian business generating $100MM in mid-cycle EBITDA keeping the valuation thesis largely intact.  The growth story relies on Sam Zell's handpicked team making additional acquisitions in the currently distressed energy sector in order to finally start making a dent in the large tax asset.

This past week, Par Pacific announced the acquisition of Wyoming Refining, it operates a small refinery (18,000 bpd) and related logistics assets in Newcastle, WY which supplies the Rapid City, SD market and nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.  The refinery is in the attractive Rocky Mountain region (PADD IV) where oil supply outstrips local refining capacity and where demand is growing due to the increased industrial activity (although much of it is oil and gas related) in the region, this creates wider average crack spreads.

Par Pacific is paying $271MM for Wyoming Refining from a private equity owner and its expected to generate $50MM in EBITDA, or a 5.4x multiple, which unfortunately doesn't appear like a particularly distressed asset.  The previous owners have invested significant capital recently to increase the capacity of the refinery which should minimize near term capex needs, but I was hoping the next deal would be a fire sale asset from a distressed E&P company, but onto the deal details and resulting change to the valuation.

Note the rights offering and quick July 15th close, more details will follow on the structure of the rights offering but any current shareholders should be prepared to fully participate or face dilution.

The crack spreads for this niche refinery are pretty huge, at least in comparison to the high single digits seen at Par's Hawaiian refinery, much of that can be attributed to difference in the supply chain, Hawaii has to source crude oil from at least half an ocean away whereas the Wyoming refinery is close to new fracking supply that's come online in recent years.

Proforma Valuation
Using the same basic frame work from a couple months back and updating for the recent Q1 results and Wyoming Refining acquisition:

The market is roughly assigning no value to Par Pacific's ownership in Laramie Energy (which is maybe right? I'm not smart enough to value an E&P) and no value to the NOL as well (which could be right as well, quickly finding out its not easy to generate taxable income in the energy sector).

Disclosure: I own shares of PARR

Par Pacific Holdings: Update, Distressed Energy M&A Thesis

I received the Par Pacific Holdings (PARR) annual report in the mail this week and thought it made sense to revisit my initial thesis in an updated post now that I've spent more time on the company in the past 20 months I've owned it.  Last fall Par Pacific changed the holding company's name from Par Petroleum, and renamed their Hawaiian operations Par Petroleum, which coincided with Bill Pate being appointed CEO and signaling the future direction of the company.  Par Pacific traces its roots back to 2012 when it was known as Delta Petroleum, a failed natural gas producer that went through bankruptcy and ended up in the hands of creditors, the largest of which was Sam Zell's organization through the Zell Credit Opportunities Fund.  In the reorg, $265MM in debt was converted to equity and the $1.4B in net operating losses were preserved giving Par a significant tax shield as they pursue an acquisition strategy.

Sam Zell built his reputation and wealth as a distressed investor, and with much of the energy industry in distress, Par Pacific Holdings is a way to invest alongside him and his management team in an environment that should see plenty of attractive deal opportunities.  The bulk of Par Pacific today was created through two acquisitions of refining and retail assets in Hawaii.  In 2013, they bought Tesoro's Hawaiian operations for $75MM plus a $40MM earn out and in 2015 they paid $120MM for Mid Pac Petroleum (primarily retail locations).  Last year alone these assets generated $110MM in EBITDA.  Distress in the upstream oil and gas sector is migrating down to pipeline and retail players, Par Pacific's main focus going forward.

In current form, the company has three primary assets: Par Petroleum (Hawaiian downstream business), Laramie Energy (Colorado based natural gas E&P), and the tax assets.

Par Petroleum: Refinery, retail distribution network and related logistics assets located in Hawaii.

• Tesoro had mothballed their Hawaiian refinery and related assets, running them as an import, storage and distribution terminal while running an asset sale.  Most everyone passed, Tesoro wrote down the refinery to nothing, and then eventually Par came along and scooped it up for $75MM plus working capital/inventory.  Why did Par get a deal?  Tesoro made the strategic decision to exit Hawaii and focus on a new large acquisition it made with BP's old refinery in Southern California that could be operationally leveraged with Tesoro's in the same vicinity.  The Hawaiian business provided limited operational synergies and was a small piece of Tesoro's overall refinery business.  With no other buyers, Tesoro was able to effectively reallocate $325MM of net working capital to a more productive project for them with Par as the beneficiary.
• Being isolated in the Pacific Ocean, in order to drive profitability Par needed to increase it's on island sales otherwise it's expensive to ship refined product to either the west coast or Asia ($6 per barrel).  In 2014/2015 Par announced and closed on the acquisition of Mid-Pac Petroleum - 80 retail sites throughout the Hawaiian Islands.  The Mid Pac deal helps Par sell their refined product locally and internalizes consumption allowing Par to get both retail and refinery margins.  On a standalone basis the price wasn't outstanding, but the operational synergies Par will be able to squeeze out of their refinery makes it a transformational one.  They also own the land under 20 of the retail locations, so they have the ability to do a sale leaseback in the future.  With the Mid Pac retail locations, Par currently has 91 locations under the Tesoro and 76 brands, about 20% of the overall Hawaiian market.
• Management still believes there are acquisition opportunities in Hawaii, most likely additional retail to further drive the on island sales to match the output at the refinery, limiting the need to export.
• Later this year they will need to spend $30-35MM in maintenance capex at the refinery.  I assume/hope they will do their best to run at peak capacity around the scheduled down time in order to minimize impact.  Management has guided that the refinery will run at 1/2-2/3 capacity in the 3rd and 4th quarters.
• The refinery competes with one other in Hawaii, also located on Oahu, it was previously owned by Chevron and had shopped extensively until it was recently acquired by a private equity firm this month.  It's about half the size and Par was optimistically thought to potentially be a buyer of some Chevron assets, but regulators probably wouldn't have it.  The sale is likely just neutral for Par until we know more about the new owner's intentions.
• Par recently started breaking out their logistics assets as a separate reporting segment even though all sales are inter-company transactions and consolidated for reporting purposes.  But this change potentially signals further midstream acquisitions and in a distant future where MLPs make sense again they could sponsor their own and drop assets down.
• The combined Par Petroleum segment did about $110MM in 2015 EBITDA, which will probably come down some in 2016 with crack spreads coming in and the planned downtime at the refinery.

Laramie Energy: A minority interest in a privately own natural gas exploration and production company located in the Piceance Basin in Colorado.  This started as a legacy asset of Par's predecessor Delta Petroleum.

• In March, Laramie Energy completed a bolt on acquisition of nearby acreage for $157.5MM with Par contributing $55MM.  As a result of the deal, Par Pacific now owns 42% of the common equity and accounts for the position using the equity method.  Par's additional investment essentially created their own balance sheet write-down as of 12/31/15, the better the deal for Par the larger the write-down they needed to take.  But proforma for the acquisition, Laramie has a book value of $131MM.
• The timing of when the new acreage came up for sale wasn't ideal, management had been out in the investor community discussing mid and downstream acquisition targets but since this was adjacent to their existing JV the deal had a lot of strategic/operational value similar to what Mid Pac accomplished in Hawaii.  They know the area, and can spread their overhead costs over a larger asset base giving them additional leverage if the natural gas market recovers.
• Bob Boswell runs Laramie Energy, he's an industry veteran, currently serves on the board of Cabot Oil & Gas and has a history of starting and selling oil and gas producers.  In 2007, the first iteration of Laramie Energy was sold to Plains Exploration and Production for $1B, three years after the company was setup for $200MM (plus bank loan debt).
• Management seems realistic about this asset and has limited drilling planned for the near future.  They've also hedged much of Laramie's production through 2018, giving it the ability to wait out the cycle for a few more years.  It's mostly an upside option on natural gas prices.

NOL Tax Asset: $1.4B in net operating losses that can be used to offset future taxable income.

• Why do I like NOLs?  They attract long term investors that understand the importance of capital allocation and generally create an incentive to purchase cheap free cash flow businesses in order to monetize the NOL quickly.  The sooner the NOL is used up, the more valuable it becomes.
• Having the NOL reduces Par Pacific's cost of capital allowing them to be more competitive (pay a higher price) for acquisitions.  It also gives them additional flexibility in an asset sale (Laramie Energy for instance) where they could be more agreeable to a deal well above their cost basis knowing they have an NOL in place to shield capital gains.
• It is slightly tough having energy assets in an NOL heavy corporate structure, many energy businesses have built in tax shields to their business.  Par hasn't made much, if any, progress yet in monetizing the NOL, they're going to need a couple sizable acquisitions in coming years to start making a dent.

Valuation:

Below is a quick and dirty valuation for Par Pacific, refiners trade for 4-6x EBITDA, midstream trades 12-15x EBITDA, and retail seems to trade around 8x EBITDA.  For Laramie Energy, it's probably simplest to use the equity method book value; I'm thoroughly ignorant to how oil and gas companies are valued.  If anyone has any specific thoughts on Laramie's value, I'd love to hear them. 

At current prices, you're paying a cheap to fair price for the current assets and you get the acquisition runway/management as an upside option.  But I understand if non-shareholders would want to wait to see the next acquisition, it could create a better buying opportunity especially if it's paired with a rights offering.

Additionally, it seems like once a year the stock tanks for no apparent reason, in the summer of 2015 the company filed a shelf registration per the Shareholder Rights Agreement with Zell and other large shareholders which gave them the option to sell, but didn't actually mean they were going to, the stock sold off as if everyone was exiting and it went on to recover fairly quickly.  Shareholder Rights Agreements are one of those filing events to look for as some people sell first and ask questions later.

Risks:

• Hawaii - The state is a difficult place to do business, its heavily regulated and communal, they don't like outsiders running critical businesses in their state as can be seen with the Hawaiian Electric - NextEra merger drama.  Politically the state has a long term plan to move away from fossil fuels and have their energy needs provided 100% by renewable energy sources by 2045.  I would assume its safe to say that the military, tourism and other industries will still require refined products but there might not be room for two refineries long term if Hawaii meets its renewable energy mandate.
• Roll-up/Acquisition Strategy - Par Pacific describes itself as a growth company and most of that growth will come from repeated acquisitions funded through repeated capital raises.  The serial acquisition platform companies of the recent cycle have made roll-ups a dirty word as cheap debt and giddy equity markets led to some questionable deals and following meltdowns.  With Par Pacific you must believe in management's ability to identify attractive deals and not overpay for them.
• Equity Raises - Par Pacific will be a serial issuer of private placements or stapled rights offerings to fund its larger acquisitions in order to maintain the NOL asset.  Rights offerings are usually done at a discount, so shareholders will need to participate in them or be diluted.  I don't have any evidence to back this up, but it also seems to create a ceiling on the share price as investors become concerned that as the share price rises that management will use it as an opportunity to issue more equity.
• Natural Gas - After the recent bolt on acquisition, Laramie Energy is now a larger part of the company at a time when natural gas is as cheap and abundant as it has been in a long time.  Many oil and gas companies are going bankrupt, others have pulled way back on production, maybe at some point in the distant future natural gas prices will rise again, but they're likely to stay low for the foreseeable future.

Disclosure: I own shares of PARR

Par Petroleum: Zell Controlled + NOLs

Par Petroleum (PARR) was created through the reorganization of Delta Petroleum in 2012.  Sam Zell, via the Zell Credit Opportunity Fund, and Whitebox Advisors held significant stakes in the unsecured debt which were converted to equity in the reorganization preserving the $1.3B in net operating loss carry forwards.  Post reorganization, Par's assets included a minority stake in a natural gas E&P and NOLs, but the company is now focused on downstream assets with the stated strategy to "create ongoing, stable earnings capable of predictable monetization of NOLs."

Will Monteleone is the CEO, 30 years old, and receives a small base salary at Par, he also serves as an associate at Equity Group Investments where he oversaw the initial restructuring of the company and appears to be Sam Zell's main deal guy focused on the energy sector.  The company recently uplisted from the OTC to the NYSE, and the CEO has talked about engaging analysts a bit more to get the story out.  The financial statements are a bit of a mess, the company isn't currently profitable, but the platform is in place for management to make opportunistic acquisitions to where the future business is not going to look a whole lot like the current.  The three main assets currently are Hawaii Independent Energy, Piceance Energy, and then the large tax assets: 

Hawaii Independent Energy
In the summer of 2013, Par purchased a mothballed refinery on the island of Oahu from Tesoro Corporation for $325MM (including the working capital/inventory) plus up to $40MM in earn outs due to Tesoro if the 94,000 bpd refinery meets certain operating performance targets.  Included in the acquisition were some distribution and storage assets, along with a retail channel under the Tesoro brand name.  Par renamed the company Hawaii Independent Energy and has spent the last year or so reestablishing the asset in the marketplace.  Hawaii is a difficult location to compete, their refinery competes with others all across the Pacific and it's expensive to export refined products out of the islands due to its remote location.  Chevron operates the only other refinery in Hawaii, and announced today their plans to divest it due to its "somewhat isolate and finite market".

Due to this isolated market position, it makes sense to find additional ways to sell their product within Hawaii, to that goal they announced the acquisition of Mid Pac Petroleum in June for $107MM.  Mid Pac operates or owns over 80 retail sites and four terminals across Hawaii, and 22 of the retail locations are fee-owned (although partially encumbered by debt), which is a nice added perk in Hawaii.  The Mid-Pac acquisition helps Par internalize the consumption, thus reducing reliance on exports.  Management put the margin improvement at $6-10 barrel on what they sell on island compared to what its exported.  Additionally, Par will receive both the retail and refinery margin for anything sold through Mid Pac's distribution channel.

It takes time to turnaround a business, they've had to re-engage the market there in Hawaii after Tesoro essentially exited the market 2+ years ago.  The company believes it will be profitable in this segment next year which should make it a little easier for the market to value.

Piceance Energy
Par Petroleum's main upstream asset is a 33.34% non-operated equity interest in Piceance Energy, a primarily natural gas focused E&P in western Colorado.  The majority owner/operator is Laramie Energy II, the first Laramie Energy was previously sold to Plains Exploration and Production (now part of Freeport-McMoRan) for $1B in 2007 (peak of the natural gas boom) after being setup for $200 million only a few years earlier.  They currently have a one rig program running, and management has hinted that results have been good, a previously required capital contribution was put off due to strong operating results at Piceance.  Using the NYMEX forward curve as 12/31/12, Par Petroleum interest in Piceance resulted in estimated proved reserves of 433.4 Bcfe with a PV-10 value of $291.6MM (this was the upper end valuation at the time).  In investor calls, Par is optimistic the next reserve report will be even better.

NOLs
The most interesting asset to me is the $1.3B in net operating loss carry forward captive inside Par Petroleum.  This will shield an awful lot of taxable income if they can turn the corner.  The company has large aspirations, the acquisitions they have made so far aren't large enough to move the needle much on their NOLs.  With Sam Zell's team at the helm, I would imagine they'll be pretty selective buyers and apply a value/distressed approach while meeting their target hurdle rate of 15-20% returns.

In order to pursue their rollup strategy and fund these acquisitions Par has been a serial issuer of rights offerings.  Rights offerings create an efficient way for the controlling shareholders to maintain their ownership percentage which is key to the NOL eligibility.  So if you own shares in Par, be prepared to re-up via a rights offering at least once a year for the next several. 

Conclusion
Besides Sam Zell and Whitebox Advisor, respected investors Lee Cooperman of Omega Advisors, Andrew Shapiro of Lawndale Capital, and Horizon Kinetics are also shareholders.  You'll see I haven't really discussed valuation at all, I struggle to put a specific value on Par Petroleum, but I feel its one of those situations where you don't need to guess someone's weight to know they're fat.  Par is setup to be a potential long term compounder as management pursues an ambitious roll-up strategy to monetize the large NOLs.

Disclosure: I own shares of PARR