Laredo Petroleum to Offer 13M Shares, Selling Holders to Sell Added 3M Shares

Laredo Petroleum Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation

("Laredo" or "the Company"), today announced the commencement of an underwritten public offering of 16,000,000 shares of its common stock. The Company is offering 13,000,000 shares of common stock, and certain affiliates of Warburg Pincus LLC and members of the Company's management (collectively, the "selling stockholders") are offering an additional 3,000,000 shares of common stock.  Certain of the selling stockholders expect to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,400,000 additional shares. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock offered by it to implement the Company's planned exploration and development activities, accelerate its capital program (as appropriate), and for general corporate purposes. The Company will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock offered by the selling stockholders. J.P. Morgan and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are acting as joint bookrunners for the offering.