Monday 03 August 2015 9:00 am

Dragon Oil share price surges after Enoc wins backing of company’s minority owners

Shares in Dragon Oil opened nine per cent higher to 799p this morning after Emirates National Oil Company secured enough shareholder votes to privatise Dragon Oil this weekend, having revised their offer for each Dragon Oil share to 800 pence “to give all parties certainty,” the company said in a statement.

Increasing the takeover bid to 800 pence set a price that won the backing of the oil producer’s two largest minority shareholders, Elliott Advisors and Baillie Gifford, companies that rejected Enoc’s offer in June. Enoc said the offer was its best and final bid.

Enoc currently owns 54 per cent of Dragon Oil, but needed more than 23 per cent of acceptances to delist the company and take it private. Enoc said in a statement that they have now “gained acceptances from 29.92 per cent of Dragon Oil shareholders” and intend to delist Dragon Oil from the London Stock Exchange and Irish Stock Exchange shortly.

Dragon Oil’s largest shareholder, Enoc, announced in June that it would buy the stock in the group which it does not already own for 750 pence a share, in a deal valuing the company at £3.7bn.

However, the move was met with opposition from some shareholders who said it undervalued the company.

Commenting on the revision to the original offer on behalf of Enoc, Saif Al Falasi, group chief executive said:

With the level of acceptances now received, we have declared the offer unconditional in all aspects. We will begin the process of delisting Dragon Oil from both the Irish and London Stock Exchanges shortly.

Any additional minority shareholders wishing to accept the offer of 800 pence can tender their shares into our offer.

We look forward to taking operational control of Dragon Oil and integrating the company into the Enoc Group, moving another step closer towards creating a fully integrated oil & gas company.

Responding on behalf of Baillie Gifford, fund manager Richard Sneller said:

As a shareholder in Dragon Oil for a number of years we have seen the company grow significantly. We are now pleased to support the revised offer of 800 pence which we believe represents an attractive exit price.