North Sea company Revus Energy is being sold for more than £480million.
The buyer is German oil and gas company Wintershall, which is to pay a premium of 145% to the Revus closing price on Friday.
Analyst Christian Yggeseth, at Glitnir Securities, said: “This is a good bid, especially in today’s market. It shows that the industry continues to price assets relatively highly in the North Sea.”
The firms said yesterday The offer had been unanimously backed by the Revus board.
Revus’s biggest shareholder, Sector Asset Management, which has about 16.5% of the firm, has agreed to the deal.
Senior Revus management and board members with about 10% of the stock have also backed the sale, bringing total pre-acceptances to about 26.5%.
Norway-based Revus has an exploration and production strategy which focuses on the untapped opportunities on the UK and Norwegian continental shelves.
Its interests include 29% of the Broom field and 22.2% of Murchison.
In July, Revus said it had struck oil and gas in the Torphins prospect. A well found a 29ft oil and gas column in the eastern part of Torphins. Revus has a 50% interest in the production licence.
At the start of this month, Revus confirmed making a significant discovery offshore Norway in the Jordbaer prospect, and said there could be much more to come from the undrilled segment of Jordbaer Central.
Revus was founded in Stavanger in December 2002 by Tim Sullivan, Harald Vaboe, Svein Ilebekk and Walter Sognnes.
The team came together with a common belief in the need for a new, dynamic oil and gas exploration and production company in Norway. Revus chief executive Mr Vaboe said: “We believe this is an attractive offer to shareholders, fairly reflecting the underlying value of the company.”
Wintershall chief executive Reinier Zwitserloot said the Revus acquisition would improve his company’s activities on the Norwegian and British continental shelves.
A spokesman for Wintershall, whose parent is chemical group BASF, said it aimed to conclude the transaction by the end of the year.
French power group EDF is acquiring a majority holding in British North Sea gas fields from ATP Oil and Gas, of Houston, for £265million.
The assets cover 68% of the Tors zone, which includes two natural gas fields that came into production in March 2006 and February 2007, and 80% of the Wenlock field, which came into production in December 2007.
Production from the fields goes to Bacton gas terminal.
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