Premier Oil Amends E.ON Purchase Terms; Shares to Resume Trading

By Alex MacDonald

LONDON--Premier Oil PLC (PMO.LN) said Monday that it has amended the terms of its purchase of E.ON SE's (EONGY) U.K. North Sea oil and gas assets to secure class 1 transaction status and allow its shares to resume trading.

The U.K.-listed oil firm's shares were suspended on Jan. 13 by the U.K.'s Listing Authority to determine whether the $120 million deal should be classified as a reverse takeover.

Premier and E.ON have agreed to tweak the deal so that Premier will now pay $135 million to complete the purchase. This is a result of an increase of the dividend paid to E.ON prior to completion.

"On the basis of this lower aggregate consideration, the acquisition has been classified as a Class 1 transaction," U.K. company said. "We have requested that Premier's ordinary shares and 5% listed bonds resume trading on the London Stock Exchange," on Monday.

The proposed purchase will be funded from existing cash resources and adds immediate cash generative production, while widening Premier's current U.K. tax loss of around $3.5 billion.

The transaction will be subject to approval by Premier's shareholders in March or April. It is also subject to approval by Premier's U.S. Private Placement noteholders and lending banks.

The E.ON assets are concentrated in the Central North Sea, West of Shetlands and the Southern Gas Basin and include stakes in flagship assets such as the Elgin-Franklin, Huntington, Babbage and Tolmount fields. The acquisition will add about 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of production to Premier's production profile this year, accounting for at least a fifth of its 2016 forecast output of about 65,000 to 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Write to Alex MacDonald at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 01, 2016 03:00 ET (08:00 GMT)

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