Premier Oil Amends E.ON Purchase Terms; Shares to Resume Trading
February 01 2016 - 2:15AM
Dow Jones News
By Alex MacDonald
LONDON--Premier Oil PLC (PMO.LN) said Monday that it has amended
the terms of its purchase of E.ON SE's (EONGY) U.K. North Sea oil
and gas assets to secure class 1 transaction status and allow its
shares to resume trading.
The U.K.-listed oil firm's shares were suspended on Jan. 13 by
the U.K.'s Listing Authority to determine whether the $120 million
deal should be classified as a reverse takeover.
Premier and E.ON have agreed to tweak the deal so that Premier
will now pay $135 million to complete the purchase. This is a
result of an increase of the dividend paid to E.ON prior to
completion.
"On the basis of this lower aggregate consideration, the
acquisition has been classified as a Class 1 transaction," U.K.
company said. "We have requested that Premier's ordinary shares and
5% listed bonds resume trading on the London Stock Exchange," on
Monday.
The proposed purchase will be funded from existing cash
resources and adds immediate cash generative production, while
widening Premier's current U.K. tax loss of around $3.5
billion.
The transaction will be subject to approval by Premier's
shareholders in March or April. It is also subject to approval by
Premier's U.S. Private Placement noteholders and lending banks.
The E.ON assets are concentrated in the Central North Sea, West
of Shetlands and the Southern Gas Basin and include stakes in
flagship assets such as the Elgin-Franklin, Huntington, Babbage and
Tolmount fields. The acquisition will add about 15,000 barrels of
oil equivalent a day of production to Premier's production profile
this year, accounting for at least a fifth of its 2016 forecast
output of about 65,000 to 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a
day.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 01, 2016 03:00 ET (08:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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