Emirates National Oil Company, owned by the Dubai government, has agreed to buy a 46 per cent stake in Dragon Oil after slightly increasing its offer.
The companies have agreed on Enoc’s revised offer of £7.50 per share for Dragon, which values the entire company at about £3.7 billion (Dh21.09bn). That is an increase of just 15 pence, or 2 per cent, above the offer Enoc made last month. But it is a 47 per cent premium to Dragon’s share price of just above £5.09 in early March, when Enoc first formally announced through the London and Irish stock exchanges, where Dragon Oil shares are listed, that it had approached the company.
An independent committee chaired by Thor Haugnaess, an oil executive who previously worked at Schlumberger and other oil companies, was formed after the March approach to haggle over the terms on behalf of Dragon Oil.
Yesterday's recommended cash offer "is the result of extensive negotiations between the independent committee and Enoc, reflects the achievements and future prospects of the Dragon Oil Group and offers Dragon Oil minority shareholders an opportunity to exit at an attractive price", Mr Haugnaess said. For Enoc, Dragon is a fairly easy opportunity to move towards its goal of diversifying internationally.
Dragon Oil itself has struggled to diversify away from its main asset, the Cheleken project in Turkmenistan. It last year abandoned a £492 million bid to acquire Petroceltic, another exploration and development company with a wider spread of assets, when the collapse in oil prices changed the economics of the offer.
Dragon Oil also said it had reached its targeted production of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) and expected Cheleken to keep producing at that level this year.
It expects between US$500m and $600m of capital expenditure this year, down from $677m last year.
amcauley@thenational.ae
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