Fiona Reddan
Petroceltic, the Dublin-headquartered oil and gas company, said on Thursday that examiner Grant Thornton has appointed Worldview International Management as the recommended successful investor in the sale of the company.
The selection of Worldview follows a sales and investment process which required best and final offers, accompanied by adequate proof of funding, to be made by early May.
Petroceltic said it expects Worldview to sign an investment agreement in the coming days which will see it take control of the entire group, including those companies outside of the examinership process.
Worldview, a hedge fund, requested the appointment of an examiner to Petroceltic and related subsidiaries on March 4th 2016, and Grant Thornton was appointed as examiner on April 8th. Subject to Court approval, the examinership process is expected to conclude in early June.
Petroceltic is listed in Dublin and London and its main asset is a gas field in Algeria. It has been in examinership since April.
Worldview, which is run by Russian Mr Angelo Moskov, has been pushing for change at Petroceltic for over a year.
Petroceltic said in a statement: “The examiner has selected Worldview as the successful investor and expects to proceed to sign an investment agreement over the coming days.” The company has been in difficulties for a prolonged period, partly due to the collapse in the price of oil. It effectively put itself up for sale last December, after announcing that it had breached loan covenants of borrowings of over €200 million from a number of banks.
This led to a battle with Worldview,the biggest shareholder with over 29 per cent who had previously tried to replace Petroceltic chief executive Brian O’Cathain. Sunny Hill, a subsidiary of Worldview, made a bid for Petroceltic which subsequently went into examinership. Subsequently the hedge fund gained control of some 70 per cent of Petroceltic’s debt , putting it in effective control.
David Round, an analyst at BMO, has calculated that the company’s assets are worth up to 44p a share, according to a Financial Times report.
