The Hindu Business Line : ONGC snaps up Imperial Energy for $ 1.9 b

New Delhi, Dec. 31 Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has taken control of Imperial Energy Plc for £1.3 billion ($1.9 billion) after 96.8 per cent of the London-listed firm’s shareholders accepted the takeover offer made by the state-owned explorer’s overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL).

OVL’s £12.50/share offer closed on Tuesday and 99,241,110 shares, or 96.8 per cent of Imperial Energy’s existing issued share capital, were tendered. OVL needed 90 per cent shareholders to approve its deal.

ONGC, which could raise $1 billion locally to fund the deal, is likely to delist Imperial in London, a senior company executive had said earlier last month.

OVL’s biggest buy

Imperial, the Leeds-based firm that has oil producing blocks in Tomsk region of western Siberia in Russia and Kastanai in north-central Kazakhstan, would be the biggest overseas acquisition by OVL. It had paid $1.7 billion to buy a 20 per cent stake in Exxon Mobil Corp’s Sakhalin-I field in Russia and $785 million for a stake in the Greater Nile project in Sudan, both in 2003.

Bigger presence

“The acquisition will provide OVL with the opportunity to establish presence in Western Siberia, one of the world’s largest oil gas producing regions, by acquiring an asset with significant long-term production and reserves potential.

“OVL looks forward to both developing the Imperial Energy licences and growing its asset base by participating in upcoming auctions for licence blocks to Imperial Energy’s existing blocks,” an ONGC statement said.

More projects

In the past few years, ONGC has lost out to China’s state-owned CITIC Group for assets in Kazakhstan and to Korea National Oil Corp. in Nigeria.

But through acquisition of exploration and production assets, ONGC has managed to increase its number of projects outside India to 39 in 17 countries in the past seven years, from just a single project in Vietnam.

Related Stories:
ONGC Videsh close to buying out Imperial

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