Dana Gas reiterates plan to use Egyptian asset sale to pay down sukuk

The company has exploration and production assets in Egypt, Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the UAE

If a sale of Dana Gas Egyptian assets were to go ahead, the proceeds of the sale would be used to pay down its sukuk. Jaime Puebla / The National

Sharjah-based Dana Gas reiterated its earlier plans to use the proceeds from the sale of its Egyptian assets to pay down its sukuk due in October, according to a bourse filing.

The company, which operates concessions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as well as in Egypt, already started a strategic review of its Egyptian assets and confirmed it would direct proceeds from a potential sale towards paying down its Islamic bond, Dana Gas said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi stock exchange on Thursday.

"If a sale of these assets were to go ahead the proceeds of the sale would be used to pay down the sukuk as required by the terms of the sukuk," Dana Gas said. "The company will update the market in relation to further developments as and when they arise in relation to the strategic review."

The statement reiterates Dana Gas' position in February, when it noted that it had "received numerous bids and is finalising the technical and commercial evaluation" of these. A decision was due to be made by the end of the first quarter.

Dana Gas secured an agreement in 2018 to restructure and refinance the company’s $700 million (Dh2.6 billion) sukuk, which had been the subject of a protracted legal dispute when it surprised creditors including investment bank Goldman Sachs and the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock by declaring its bonds non-Sharia-compliant.

A restructuring deal was agreed last year through which the company bought back $133m of sukuk. It is due to pay $397 million of outstanding sukuk in October and could also tap into its cash position to pay off its dues, Dana Gas chief executive Patrick Allman-Ward said in February.

Dana Gas reported an annual net profit of Dh575m for 2019 compared with a net loss of Dh682m in the previous year. The rise in profit was supported by higher production from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where the company has gas assets. The company's profitability also received a boost as provisions for impairments declined and its earnings from Kurdistan and Egypt increased, offsetting the fluctuation in oil prices.

Separately, the company's shareholders gave the green light to progress a study into splitting the company into two separate entities.

A feasibility study will now be undertaken to investigate proposals announced late last month to demerge its upstream and midstream businesses, to create two publicly-traded companies on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

Under the plan, existing shareholders would own shares in both the upstream business, which comprises operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and Egypt, and a midstream business that owns a UAE Gas project that is currently under arbitration, the company said on April 22. Shareholders gave their approval for the study to go ahead, and for a 5.5 fils per share dividend to be issued, on Wednesday.