Sunny Hill say €8.1m bid for Petroceltic has lapsed

A £6.4m (€8.1m) takeover bid for Irish exploration company Petroceltic from a firm owned by the company’s largest shareholder Worldview Economic Recovery Fund has lapsed.

Sunny Hill — which is owned by activist shareholder Worldview — had hoped to secure a takeover of deal of the Dublin-based company but yesterday released a statement which said the bid had lapsed.

Sunny Hill tabled a 3p per share bid in March.

The deal was not finalised in time and as such was withdrawn, the company said.

“As valid acceptances of the offer, representing only approximately 54.6% of the Petroceltic Shares Affected were received by the closing date and time, the acceptance condition has not been satisfied and the Offer has lapsed,” the statement read.

“Accordingly, the Offer is no longer capable of further acceptance and accepting Petroceltic Shareholders and Sunny Hill have ceased to be bound by acceptances made and received before the closing date and time.”

Worldview owns a 29% share in Petroceltic.

The Switzerland-based company had a previous takeover bid rejected by Petroceltic as it did not meet the Irish firm’s valuation.

Petroceltic last month urged shareholders to accept the Sunny Hill bid, however.

Last week, the High Court confirmed examinership for Petroceltic and two related companies.

There was no opposition to the application, brought by Worldview which has acquired further debts of Petroceltic in the week prior to the High Court’s ruling.

Worldview and Petroceltic’s board have been in dispute for more than a year with the investor attempting to have members of the Irish firm’s management removed on a number of occasions.