History
HighPeak Energy listed via a 2020 merger with a shell company, grew through acquisitions funded by debt and share sales, refinanced in 2023, and by mid-2026 had loosened covenants and set up a $150 million share sale programme.
2019-2020: Merging into a listed shell
HighPeak Energy set out to become a listed company by merging with Pure Acquisition Corp., a listed shell company. The first registration statement, filed on 2 December 2019, followed agreements dated 27 November 2019. Each Pure share would convert into one HighPeak share, and the HighPeak partnerships (HighPeak I, II and III) would contribute their interests in HPK Energy, LP for stock. A separate deal with Grenadier Energy Partners II fell away from the proposals by May 2020, when the merger was restated under a new agreement and the planned listing moved from the NYSE to Nasdaq.
The terms changed several times. In July 2020, Pure's public holders were offered a contingent value right (CVR), a promise meant to top up their return to a 10% simple annual return, with a $4.00 per-share floor. Forward purchase investors were then enlarged from 5,000,000 to 5,811,000 shares, adding possible dilution.
The merger closed on 21 August 2020, and HighPeak began trading on Nasdaq as HPK. Pure holders who stayed in received one share, $0.62 in cash, one CVR and one warrant per share. HPK Energy's owners received 76,383,054 shares. Only 1,232,425 shares went to Pure's public holders, so few took the deal rather than redeeming. Afterwards there were 91,592,354 shares. In December 2020 the company signed its first bank facility, a revolving credit agreement with Fifth Third Bank, with a $40.0 million borrowing base and nothing drawn.
2021-2022: Debt, share sales and acquisitions in Texas
The bank facility grew quickly: the borrowing base rose to $125 million in June 2021 and $195 million in October 2021. HighPeak also sold new shares through Roth Capital Partners in a deal that closed in October 2021, with net proceeds of about $20.7 million.
In 2022 the company turned to acquisitions. In February it sold $225 million of 10.00% senior unsecured notes due 2024, netting about $207.3 million, partly to repay bank debt. It agreed to buy properties next to its Flat Top area, which closed in March and June 2022 for 7,331,517 shares in total. In June it also closed the Hannathon acquisition near Signal Peak in Howard County, for 3,522,117 shares and $237.4 million in cash, and lifted the bank borrowing base to $400 million.
Further funding followed. A private placement at $21.61 per share, with insiders and the John Paul DeJoria Family Trust taking part, closed in September at about $85 million for 3.9 million shares. In October the bank lenders waived two technical defaults, on hedging and the current ratio, and the borrowing base reached $550 million. In November the company sold a further $225 million of 10.625% notes due 2024. Shares on issue rose from 96.8 million at the end of 2021 to 113.2 million at the end of 2022, reflecting these deals.
2023: Debt pressure and refinancing
The borrowing was now a problem. A March 2023 amendment lifted the borrowing base to $700 million but required the February notes to be redeemed or refinanced by 30 June. In July, after waivers and a deadline pushed to 1 September, the company warned that failing to refinance could force asset sales, drilling cuts or even bankruptcy protection. Preliminary figures showed $1,002.4 million of total debt and about $121.3 million of payables due or past due.
The company launched a share offering on 18 July. It closed three days later: 14,835,000 shares sold, with net proceeds of about $151.2 million. Existing holders, including the DeJoria Trust and Jack Hightower, bought about 10 million of them.
In September, HighPeak signed a $1.2 billion term loan at SOFR plus 7.50%, with Texas Capital Bank and Chambers Energy Management as agents, and paid off the old bank facility. It called both sets of 2024 notes for redemption, though the filings do not confirm completion. In November it signed a new $100 million revolver with Fifth Third Bank. Shares on issue reached 128.4 million at the end of 2023.
2024-2026: Dividends, extensions and a new share programme
In February 2024 the board approved a share buyback of up to $75 million and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.04 per share from $0.025. The filings report no repurchases. The record is then quiet until August 2025, when the company extended both the term loan and the revolver from September 2026 to September 2028. It also deferred the $30.0 million quarterly term loan repayments for a year, so they restart in September 2026.
In May 2026 HighPeak set up an at-the-market programme to sell up to $150 million of new shares through Roth Capital Partners and USCA Securities, with proceeds for general purposes including paying or refinancing debt. No sales were reported. First-quarter 2026 results showed revenue of $215.9 million and a net loss of $127.4 million.
In late June 2026, the latest event, the company amended both loans (the term loan on 25 June and the revolver on 30 June) so that the maximum leverage allowed for the quarter ending 30 June 2026 was 2.25 times, up from 2.00 times. The filings give no reason. At that point the term loan repayments were due to restart in September 2026, and no sales under the share programme had been reported.
Written from the 31 story beats below (2019 to 30 June 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.