Delek Group announces that as part of its strategy to extend its international activities in the energy field, on December 22, 2016 the Company acquired 13.18% of the share capital of Faroe Petroleum PLC (Faroe) from Dana Petroleum Limited (Dana Petroleum).
According to the purchase agreement, the Company purchased from Dana Petroleum all the Faroe shares it owned, in total 48,055,825 ordinary shares of GBP 0.10 each at a price of GBP 0.89 per share for an overall consideration of GBP 42.77 million (approx. NIS 200 million).
Faroe is an oil and natural gas exploration and production company operating in the North Sea. The shares of Faroe are traded on the AIM stock exchange in London under the FPM symbol. The share price as of Friday, 23 December, 2016 was GBP 0.99 per share (company valuation approx. GBP 360 million).
Faroe has no controlling shareholder and upon completion of the acquisition the Company will be the largest single shareholder in Faroe. To the best of the Company's knowledge, several institutional investors each hold smaller amounts of shares.
According to Faroe's public announcements, its portfolio of gas and oil assets includes about 60 drilling, evaluation, development and production licenses for oil and gas in the North Sea, in Norway and the UK, in some of which it acts as operator. As of January 1, 2016 resources (P2) stood at 61 MMBOE (61 million barrels of oil equivalent), and following completion of a transaction for the acquisition of additional assets in December 2016, proven resources are expected to increase by 20 MMBOE. In the first half of 2016 Faroe produced from the assets it owns 9,000 BOEPD (barrels of oil equivalent per day), and following acquisition of the additional assets mentioned above, the daily production output is expected to grow to between 17,000 to 18,000 BOEPD (barrels of oil equivalent per day).
It is stipulated that the information provided in this report and the data on which the Company based itself for the purpose of the acquisition is from Faroe's official reports. The Company has not received any information from Dana Petroleum or Faroe concerning Faroe and/or its assets holdings.
Asaf Bartfeld, President and CEO, Delek Group: “This is another important step in the implementation of Delek Group’s strategy to become an international energy company, with significant activity in the fields of oil and gas exploration and production. Acquisition of the Faroe shares is synergistic with and complements the purchase of 20% of the shares of Ithaca, which we did about a year ago. Delek Group’s financial strength allows us to identify strategic expansion opportunities, by which we are working to increase the value we provide to Delek Group’s investors.”
