en.Wedoany.com Reported - Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. has emerged as the leading bidder to acquire privately held WildFire Energy in a deal valued at over $4 billion, which would be the largest acquisition in the company's history.

The Houston-based shale producer is poised to win the auction for WildFire Energy, which is backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Kayne Anderson. The deal could be announced within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are not yet public. Negotiations remain fluid, and other bidders could emerge, or the company's owners could decide to retain the asset.

In New York trading on Friday, Magnolia shares fell 1.5% to $26.78, giving the company a market value of approximately $5.1 billion. Representatives for Magnolia did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while representatives for Warburg Pincus and Kayne Anderson declined to comment.

Acquiring WildFire would strengthen Magnolia's operations in the Eagle Ford shale basin in South Texas. Private equity firms are selling several privately held oil and gas companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars after the Iran war pushed up crude oil prices. Over the past few years, publicly traded companies in U.S. shale regions have been consolidating to scale up and reduce costs, as some top-tier well sites have been drilled out.

According to WildFire's website, the company operates more than 2,000 wells, with net daily oil-equivalent production exceeding 50,000 barrels. The company is run by a management team that previously operated WildHorse Resource Development Corp., which was sold to shale gas pioneer Chesapeake Energy Corp. for $1.9 billion in 2019.

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