Fairfield Energy has announced its intention to float and have its shares listed on the main market of the Stock Exchange.
The Aberdeen-based company said yesterday it planned to raise £305-£340million from the flotation but could not say yet what percentage of the company would be sold because an offer price would not be set until mid-July.
It has been reported, however, that 25-50% of Fairfield will be floated and the company will subsequently be valued at £675million-plus, putting it among the 10 largest independent UK oil and gas operators.
Fairfield also said that additional shares of up to 15% of the offer size could be sold by existing shareholders if the offer was over-subscribed.
Chief executive Mark McAllister, who founded the company in 2005 with non-executive chairman Chris Wright and private-equity backing, said yesterday’s announcement was a milestone in a long journey.
He said: “We see great potential in the North Sea, where we have been building a base of both producing and development assets.
“The proceeds of the fund-raising will be used, among other things, to increase production at the Dunlin, Dunlin SW, Merlin and Osprey fields and bring our current proved plus probable development and redevelopment projects into full-scale production.
“We hope to sanction redevelopment of the Crawford and Staffa fields later this year and over the next few years redevelop Darwin as a tie-back to the Dunlin platform. With these projects in prospect, now is the right time to come to the market.”
Mr McAllister said the principal shareholder was private-equity firm Warburg Pincus and other investors were Stanford University, Wellington Management, Kern Partners, CDP and 4D.
He added that he and Mr Wright were very small shareholders, but said: “We won’t be making a quick buck and walking away. We are locked in for a long time.”
Fairfield, which employs 50 staff, was established to focus on the UK North Sea with a strategy of acquiring and developing mature producing assets with significant upside potential and development and re-development assets in need of technical focus and capital.
Its daily production of 4,600 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2009 is forecast to grow to 34,400boe by 2014.
It said proved plus probable reserves were 94.1million boe at March 31, about one-third producing and two-thirds development. The portfolio is weighted towards oil, at 81% of its proved plus probable reserves.