Search for Gas and Oil Turns Up Nutraceuticals?

Search for Gas and Oil Turns Up Nutraceuticals?

SALT LAKE CITY--In one of the more interesting consolidationdevelopments in the natural products industry, oil and gas reserve developerUpland Energy Corp. (OTC BB:UPLC), based here, is purchasing nutraceuticalmanufacturer LifeSmart Corp, also based here, for an immediate, pre-closing $.5million in capital and subsequent stock transactions. Following the purchase,Upland president and chief executive officer Lee Jackson will step down, andLifeSmart management will take over. Upland will change its name to LifeSmartand its symbol to an as yet undetermined reflection of the new company name.According to Jackson and Darren Lopez, LifeSmarts chief operating officer,the oil and gas business will be sold to another public company, and Upland willhave transformed entirely to LifeSmart Nutrition.

This was a way for both companies to solve some problems each had beenfacing. explained Jackson. For Upland, this presents shareholders with abrighter outlook than the oil and gas business, which had ceased exploratoryoperations and offered only one Kansas-based existing oil and gas field that,while costing nothing to run, was not making enough money to continue normalUpland operations. This offers Upland shareholders a company that ispositioned for big growth, said Lopez.

For LifeSmart, this move is a way for the company to go public. In businesssince 1997, the company launched its first line of chewable supplements, mostlysports nutrition-based, in late 2000. Lopez stated that the company isdeveloping agreements with some big industry players including Trader Joesstores and Tree of Life. When its fiscal year 2000 closes in May, LifeSmartexpects to post product revenues of $2 million. Its pro forma fiscal 2001estimate is for about $23 million in project sales.

The companies came together through a common investment bank, ArizonaCapital. The interesting pairing of a gas and oil company with a nutritionalcompany does not worry Lopez. It is no concern because of how the deal willwork, said Lopez. They are rolling out their gas and oil business beforewe come in, so the separate gas and nutrition businesses will never reallyoverlap.