JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed investment firm Zeta Resources has launched a partial offer for New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZO), which, if successful, will give the company majority control.
Zeta is the takeover target’s largest shareholder and said on Thursday that it intended to offer other shareholders 72c a share.
Zeta, through its wholly owned subsidiary, currently controls about 17.5% of NZO’s voting rights and associates of Zeta hold and control an additional 3.7%. NZO’s second-largest shareholder, which owns about 8.3% of the New Zealand company, had indicated that it would accept the offer, Zeta stated.
Zeta is seeking to acquire up to 43.19% of the NZO shares that it does not already own.
The company stated that it would seek to return $50-million in capital to shareholders within six months of becoming NZO’s majority shareholder.
Zeta stipulated a 50.01% voting right threshold for the offer to proceed.
The acquisition of NZO comes less than two months after Zeta launched a takeover bid for ASX-listed Pan Pacific Petroleum, offering Pan Pacific shareholders either 3.8c in cash for each share held, or one Zeta share for every ten Pan Pacific shares held. The offer valued Pan Pacific at A$22.1-million.