Heritage Oil Plc (HOIL), a company which operates OML 30 block in Nigeria with local partners Shoreline Natural Resources Limited, where production has reached more than 50,000 barrels a day, has accepted a $1.55 billion buy- out offer from Al Mirqab Capital SPC, a company controlled by Qatar’s royal family.
Al Mirqab has offered to buy 80% of Heritage Oil at 320 pence a share, which is a 25 percent premium to the company’s May 1st, 2014 closing price on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) where it is listed with a secondary listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
Heritage on May 2, 2014 announced that it had made a profit of $100.4 million for 2013 on sales of $431.9 million.
The company is not listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange despite a significant part of its business being done in the country.
The company holds stakes in onshore oil fields in Nigeria and exploration rights in Papua New Guinea. Tony Buckingham, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, will retain a 20 percent holding and serve as an adviser for at least five years.
Heritage shares jumped as much as 23 percent to 317.9 pence in London intraday trading, the most since Aug. 8, 2012, and changed hands at 313.2 pence as of 10 a.m. local time according to a Bloomberg report.
Heritage and Shoreline Power Company Limited established Shoreline Natural Resources Limited as a private limited Nigerian company, with a 45 per cent interest in OML 30.
The National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), holds the remaining 55 per cent interest.
It is not clear what percentage of the acquisition money will be flowing to both Shoreline Power Company and the NPDC since they have stakes in the assets that formed a significant part of this deal.
