Matador Resources Company Announces Upgrades to Corporate Credit Rating and Senior Unsecured Notes and $30 Million in Additional Bond Repurchases

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Matador Resources Company (NYSE: MTDR) (“Matador” or the “Company”) today announced (1) recent upgrades by Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) to the Company’s corporate credit rating and senior unsecured notes and (2) $30 million in additional purchases of the Company’s outstanding senior notes.

Matador’s Credit Rating and Senior Unsecured Debt Upgraded by Moody’s

On September 9, 2022, Moody’s upgraded Matador’s Corporate Family Rating (CFR) from ‘B1’ to ‘Ba3’ and upgraded Matador’s senior unsecured notes from ‘B2’ to ‘B1’. In its September 9, 2022 press release, Moody’s noted, “The upgrade reflects Matador’s increased scale, reduced debt level and improved free cash flow generation ability that should provide greater resilience against volatile commodity prices. Management has taken advantage of higher oil and gas prices to accelerate growth, pay down debt and establish a sustainable shareholder return plan enhancing the company’s overall capital flexibility.” More information regarding Moody’s upgrade of Matador may be found at www.moodys.com.

$30 Million in Additional Bonds Repurchased

Between July 25, 2022 and September 12, 2022, Matador used a portion of its free cash flow to repurchase $30 million of its outstanding senior notes in a series of open market transactions, reducing its outstanding bonds from $892 million at July 25, 2022 (and $1.05 billion originally) to $862 million today. Over the past seven quarters, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2020, Matador has reduced its outstanding debt by $663 million or approximately 44% of Matador’s then total revolving debt and senior notes outstanding.

Joseph Wm. Foran, Matador’s Chairman and CEO, commented, “We are very pleased with Moody’s upgrades to our corporate family rating and senior unsecured notes, which reflect our ongoing commitment to strengthening our balance sheet, repaying debt and returning cash to shareholders. This upgrade also reflects our strong operational execution. We expect to make additional progress on our debt through the opportunistic purchase of bonds during the remainder of the third quarter of 2022. We look forward to sharing our financial results, our operational progress and the growth in value of our oil and natural gas assets as well as our midstream business as part of our third quarter earnings release in late October.”

About Matador Resources Company

Matador is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, production and acquisition of oil and natural gas resources in the United States, with an emphasis on oil and natural gas shale and other unconventional plays. Its current operations are focused primarily on the oil and liquids-rich portion of the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring plays in the Delaware Basin in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas. Matador also operates in the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas and the Haynesville shale and Cotton Valley plays in Northwest Louisiana. Additionally, Matador conducts midstream operations in support of its exploration, development and production operations and provides natural gas processing, oil transportation services, natural gas, oil and produced water gathering services and produced water disposal services to third parties.

For more information, visit Matador Resources Company at www.matadorresources.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. “Forward-looking statements” are statements related to future, not past, events. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and include any statement that does not directly relate to a current or historical fact. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “could,” “believe,” “would,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “expect,” “may,” “should,” “continue,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “project,” “hypothetical,” “forecasted” and similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about guidance, projected or forecasted financial and operating results, future liquidity, the payment of dividends, results in certain basins, objectives, project timing, expectations and intentions, regulatory and governmental actions and other statements that are not historical facts. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements, and such forward-looking statements may not prove to be accurate. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the following risks related to financial and operational performance: general economic conditions; the Company’s ability to execute its business plan, including whether its drilling program is successful; changes in oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids prices and the demand for oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids; its ability to replace reserves and efficiently develop current reserves; the operating results of the Company’s midstream’s oil, natural gas and water gathering and transportation systems, pipelines and facilities, the acquiring of third-party business and the drilling of any additional salt water disposal wells; costs of operations; delays and other difficulties related to producing oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids; delays and other difficulties related to regulatory and governmental approvals and restrictions; impact on the Company’s operations due to seismic events; availability of sufficient capital to execute its business plan, available borrowing capacity under its revolving credit facilities and otherwise; its ability to make acquisitions on economically acceptable terms; its ability to integrate acquisitions; the operating results of and the availability of any potential distributions from our joint ventures; weather and environmental conditions; the impact of the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, on oil and natural gas demand, oil and natural gas prices and its business; and the other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. For further discussions of risks and uncertainties, you should refer to Matador’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the “Risk Factors” section of Matador’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Matador undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release, except as required by law, including the securities laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.