PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Metgasco on Monday urged shareholders not to take any action around an unsolicited conditional takeover offer from fellow-listed Melbana Energy.
Melbana has announced plans to make an all-scrip conditional takeover offer for Metgasco, under which it would offer four of its own shares for every one Metgasco share held.
The offer implied a value of 4c a share for Metgasco, which represented a premium of 48% to the company’s closing price on July 12, and a 35% premium to its five-day volume weighted average share price since Metgasco’s announcement to plug and abandon the South Marsh Island well, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Metgasco in 2018 struck an agreement with Byron Energy to farm-in to the South Marsh Island block, gaining a 30% interest in the project area in return for 40% of the funding cost for an initial test well.
Melbana noted that the offer would be subject to a number of conditions, including a 50.1% minimum acceptance, as well as shareholder approval.
Metgasco told shareholders that it would confer with Melbana and its own key stakeholders, and would engage with other interested parties to ensure that shareholders were fully informed, and that a comprehensive response could be made.
Metgasco at the end of 2015 accepted a A$25-million offer from the New South Wales government to withdraw from its exploration licences in the region, as well as from litigation with the government, after the state government in 2014 suspended Metgasco’s drilling programme.