Aberdeen-based oil and gas minnow Ithaca Energy has been taken over after 76% of the shareholders accepted the offer by Israel’s Delek Group.
Ithaca Energy reported an annual loss of $54 million last year and the board had recommended Delek’s cash offer of £1.19 to Ithaca shareholders in a deal worth $1.2 billion.
Les Thomas, Ithaca Energy Chief Executive, said: “After weighing up the potential risks and opportunities that lie ahead, the Board considers the takeover offer tabled by Delek provides full value to shareholders and we wholeheartedly recommended its acceptance.”
Having discovered Tamar and Leviathan – two of the world’s largest natural gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean, the Delek Group is Israel’s largest integrated energy company.
A Delek spokesman said that Ithaca will be managed for the benefit of the Ithaca shareholders as a whole, independently of the Delek group, and that at least two independent directors shall at all times be members of the Board of Directors.
It is not known which – if any – of the current Ithaca Energy directors will be nominated for the Delek board posts.
Meanwhile, Ithaca’s Harrier field development programme is underway: development drilling is due to be completed by the end of 2017, with start-up of production expected in Summer 2018.
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