Business and Financial Leaders Lord Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch Invest in Genie Oil & Gas
November 15 2010 - 5:56PM
Business Wire
Genie Energy Corporation (Genie Energy), a division of IDT
Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), today announced that Lord (Jacob)
Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch have each purchased equity stakes in
Genie Oil and Gas Inc. Jacob Rothschild will join Rupert Murdoch on
Genie Energy’s Strategic Advisory Board and Jacob Rothschild’s
interests will partner with Genie Energy to raise capital for the
eventual commercialization of its oil shale projects.
Jacob Rothschild and Mr. Murdoch separately purchased equity
positions equivalent to a cumulative 5.5% stake in Genie Oil and
Gas Inc., which consists of IDT’s interests in American Shale Oil,
LLC (AMSO), and Israel Energy Initiatives, Ltd., (IEI), for a total
of $11.0 million dollars.
Claude Pupkin, CEO of Genie Oil and Gas, commented, “Genie’s
success will ultimately depend, in part, on access to the expertise
of the oil and gas industry and to the financial markets. Jacob
Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch are extremely well regarded by and
connected to leaders in these sectors. Their guidance and
participation will prove invaluable.”
“I am grateful to Howard Jonas and IDT for the opportunity to
invest in this important initiative,” Lord Rothschild said. “Rupert
Murdoch’s extraordinary achievements speak for themselves and we
are very pleased he has agreed to be our partner. Genie Energy is
making good technological progress to tap the world’s substantial
oil shale deposits which could transform the future prospects of
Israel, the Middle East and our allies around the world.”
Jacob Rothschild, OM, GBE is Chairman of the J. Rothschild group
of companies and of RIT Capital Partners plc (RITCP), the
investment trust company. RITCP is listed on the London Stock
Exchange and has a market cap of over £1.7 billion. Jacob
Rothschild is also Chairman of Five Arrows Limited, a family
investment company, and a number of other companies. Jacob
Rothschild is a noted philanthropist, and serves as Chairman of the
Rothschild Foundation.
“The Rothschild family continues to build on its 250-year
tradition of leadership in the financing of innovation and growth,”
said IDT’s Chairman and CEO, Howard Jonas. “It is a great honor to
me, my family and our Company that he has agreed to partner with us
to advance this project to its successful conclusion. Rupert
Murdoch is the greatest and most well informed media magnate of our
generation. His decision to invest in our shale initiatives and
serve on Genie’s Strategic Advisory Board is very gratifying and we
look forward to benefiting from his input.”
“Covering and distributing news has been my life’s work,” said
Mr. Murdoch. “If Genie’s effort to develop shale oil is successful,
as I believe it will be, then the news we’ll report in the coming
decades will reflect a more prosperous, more democratic, and more
secure world.”
Rupert Murdoch is the founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO of
News Corporation, one of the world’s largest diversified media
companies. News Corporation’s holdings include Fox Entertainment,
The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, HarperCollins and
significant other media assets on six continents.
Other members of Genie’s Strategic Advisory Board are:
Alan K. Burnham, PhD – Chief Technology
Officer, American Shale Oil, LLC.; Research scientist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory for over 30 years; Dick Cheney
– 46th Vice President of the United States. Former President and
CEO of Halliburton Company, and U.S. Secretary of Defense;
Wes Perry – Chairman of the Board, Genie Energy. Founder and CEO of
E.G.L. Resources, an energy exploration and development company;
Allan Sass, PhD – Former President and CEO of Occidental Oil
Shale, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum; Michael
Steinhardt – Principal Manager, Steinhardt Management LLC. Renowned
hedge fund investor and founder Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz &
Co., and noted philanthropist; Eugene A. Renna – Former
Executive Vice President of Exxon Mobil and a member of its Board.
Also formerly President and COO of Mobil Corporation;
Stephen M. Trauber – Vice Chairman and Global Head; Energy
Investment Banking Group, UBS Investment Bank; Harold
Vinegar, PhD – Former Chief Scientist - Royal Dutch Shell.
About Genie Energy:
Genie Energy Corporation is a division of IDT Corporation
(www.idt.net), a consumer services company with operations
primarily in the telecommunications and energy industries. IDT
Corporation's Class B Common Stock and Common Stock trade on the
New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT and IDT.C,
respectively.
Genie Energy is comprised of IDT Energy, an energy services
company that resells electricity and natural gas to residential and
small business customers primarily in New York State, and Genie
Oil and Gas, Inc., which consists of (1) American Shale
Oil Corporation which holds and manages a 50% interest in American
Shale Oil, LLC, a joint shale oil initiative in Colorado with
Total, S.A., and (2) an 89% interest in Israel Energy Initiatives,
Ltd., a shale oil initiative in Israel.
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