UK-based Heritage Oil has accepted a US$1.6bn takeover offer from a fund owned by the former chief executive of Qatars sovereign wealth fund
Heritage, whose main oil production is in Nigeria, said in statement that it was recommending a 320 pence per share cash offer, which represented a 25 per cent premium to its closing price the day before the approach was announced.
Al Mirqab Capital, is the private investment vehicle of Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al Thani and his family.
Heritage’s largest shareholder, former mercenary Anthony Buckingham who owns 34 per cent of the FTSE 250 company, has entered into an agreement with Al Mirqab to retain a 20 per cent stake of Heritage for five years under its new ownership.
Al Mirqab is interested in accessing Heritage’s growing oil output in Nigeria and its exploration portfolio which includes areas in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea.
Heritage bought into a Nigerian oilfield which had been owned by oil major Shell in a US$850mn deal in 2012 while it sold out of a gas field it had discovered in Kurdistan. It had previously sold oil fields it had found in Uganda.
