Clock is ticking for Dragon
The Irish Takeover Panel yesterday formally set a December 19 deadline of 5pm for Dragon to either announce an intention to make an offer for the Dublin-based firm or announce it won’t go ahead with an offer.
If it announces the latter, Dragon would be restricted from making a further approach for a year.
The takeover panel said in its statement: “Following representations made by Petroceltic and its advisers, and correspondence with the advisors to both Petroceltic and Dragon, the panel has ruled that — except with the consent of the panel — Dragon must, by 5pm on December 19, 2014, either announce an offer for Petroceltic under rule 2.5 of the takeover rules or announce that it will not proceed with an offer for Petroceltic.”
Early last month, news broke of a possible 230p/$790m (€636m) cash offer from Dragon for Petroceltic, with the management of the Irish firm saying it would be willing to recommend such an offer if forthcoming, to its shareholders.
Petroceltic’s main shareholders include Middle-Eastern based investment firm, Dovenby Capital; Swiss firm, Worldview and non-executive chairman, Robert Adair, the founder of Scottish explorer Melrose Resources, which merged with Petroceltic two years ago.
The proposal followed the completion of an extensive round of due diligence on the part of Dragon.
Dragon’s management has been in talks with its main shareholder — the Emirates National Oil Company, which owns 54% — to garner support for the tabling of a formal offer.
A takeover of Petroceltic would significantly enhance Dragon’s geographical spread and asset portfolio, as it would give it interests in south Europe (Italy, Greece and the Black Sea region), Kurdistan, Egypt and Algeria.Currently, Dragon’s main asset is the Cheleken oil field in Turkmenistan.
