Dragon Oil, which has announced an 18 per cent decline in half year revenues, is to delist from the London and Dublin exchanges in early September after Emirates National Oil Co (Enoc) said it had secured enough support to buy the stock in the group it doesn't already own.
Enoc, which already owned 53.9 per cent of the Irish-listed exploration firm, agreed in June to buy the stock in the group it doesn't already own for 750 pence a share in a deal that values the firm at about £3.7 billion (€5.1bn). Having failed to garner sufficient support from minority shareholders it increased its offer to 800 pence a share, valuing the business at £4 billion (€5.7 billon).
The Dubai-based group said that as of yesterday it had received approximately 24 per cent of the current issued share capital of Dragon and 51.5 per cent of the voting rights held by independent shareholders.
Having reached the relevant thresholds under listing rules, it intends to commence the delisting process immediately with the last day of trading of Dragon shares on the Dublin and London exchanges taking place on September 4th.
Shareholders who have not yet accepted the revised buyout terms have until August 28th to do so.
Revenue decline
Meanwhile Dragon said on Friday that revenues fell by 18 per cent from $547 million to $449.9 million in the six months to the end of June due to lower crude prices.
Operating profit fell 54 per cent from $388.5 million to $179.1 million. The producer announced a $28.2 million profit, down 52 per cent on the $58.7 million reported for the same six months a year earlier.
Dragon recorded an average gross production rate of approximately 92,060 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the first half, as against 74,440 bopd for the same period in 2014. A growth production rate of 100,658 bopd had been achieved on June 9th, the group said with eight wells completed from the start of the year.
"Gross production has increased compared to the level in 1H 2014 on the back of strong initial flow rates from new development wells, additional perforations in certain existing wells and the application of jet pumping systems. The significant decline in crude oil prices is reflected in the financial results, and we generated US$139mn of net income, a drop of 52 per cent from the levels achieved in the corresponding period last year, " said chief executive Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa.
“We surpassed the 100,000 bopd mark on 9 June 2015 - an achievement of which, we, the team at Dragon Oil, are very proud of. Since then, we are hovering around that rate. Work on our exploration assets progresses in line with programmes agreed with our respective partners and host governments.”
Dragon said it was to raise its production growth target for 2015 to around 15 per cent and expects to maintain an average gross production rate of 100,000 bopd for a minimum of five years from next year.
