Troubled Petroceltic Rebuffs Bid

Petroceltic on March 3 advised shareholders to "take no action at this time" with regard to a takeover offer worth £0.03 cash per share by Worldview.

Dublin-based, London AIM-listed Petroceltic did however caution that there is no certainty that it will continue to receive waivers from its lenders or that it will be able to secure funding on acceptable terms to enable it to complete its ongoing Strategic Review, or get a higher offer than the £0.03/share.

On 22 February, it said it had received a further waiver of repayments under its Senior Bank Facility until March 4 2016.

Last month Petroceltic began development drilling at the Ain Tsila gas and condensate field in Algeria, and completed the sale of its interests in three exploration licences in Egypt to Italian energy company Edison, which belongs to French power group EDF.

Worldview's offer values Petroceltic at roughly £6.42 million, representing a discount of 83.3% to the £0.18/share closing price on February 25, the last trading day prior to the date of the announcement of the offer. However shares fell to 6.8 pence in late trading on March 3, having opened that day at 11 pence.

Petroceltic's board said they had been advised by Dublin-based firm J&E Davy and had consulted with a number of its stakeholders, including lenders.

Mark Smedley