Business | Oil & Gas
Centrica turns hostile in bid to buy Venture
The battle for Venture Production went hostile this weekend when the North Sea oil producer's board rejected a £1.3 billion (Dh7.8 billion) all-cash offer from its largest shareholder, Centrica.
- Daily Mail
- Published: 23:02 July 12, 2009
London: The battle for Venture Production went hostile this weekend when the North Sea oil producer's board rejected a £1.3 billion (Dh7.8 billion) all-cash offer from its largest shareholder, Centrica.
Venture chief executive Mike Wagstaff said: "We are the leading independent gas producer in the North Sea. In no way does this offer recognise the strategic position and high quality of our gas reserves and resources."
Co-founder and non-executive director Larry Kinch, whose 7.4 per cent stake would be worth £96.2 million if Centrica's 845 pence-a-share were accepted, backed the board's decision.
If the 55-year-old Scottish tycoon had agreed to the takeover, it would have been the second fortune he had made out of the North Sea. In 1986, he founded Petroleum Engineering Services, only to sell the company four years later to US oil giant Halliburton for £111 million.
His dilemma started on Friday night when Centrica, the UK's biggest energy supplier, announced it was making the offer after raising its stake in the Aberdeen-based company from 23.6 per cent to 29 per cent.
Centrica made the move after buying private equity group 3i's 5.4 per cent stake.
The deal was agreed just hours after Venture's major shareholders had agreed not to sell their stake at too low a price. Some analysts had expected a bid at around 940 pence a share.
Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica which owns British Gas, said: "The acquisition of 3i's stake demonstrates the support of another one of Venture's largest shareholders for our bid to buy Venture."
This is the second major deal Centrica has made in the past three months, having earlier acquired a 20 per cent stake in British Energy.
Centrica still has nearly £2 billion in its war chest. It is in talks with Qatar hoping to seal a liquefied natural gas deal and it has its eyes on a number of companies operating in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
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