Page 7 - AfrOil Week 16 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

The new company will eventually be able to turn government has charged the Petroleum Min-
out 100,000 tonnes per year of bioethanol, more istry with mitigating the country’s net depend-
than enough to meet local demand. Surplus pro- ence on energy and petroleum product imports.
duction will be exported abroad. To this end, the ministry has been working to
Bioethanol is used to manufacture a myriad make better use of domestic and imported crude
of materials in different fields, including but not by moving up the value-added chain of petro-
limited to medical and chemical products such leum products.
as inks, paints and disinfectants. It can also be The ministry reportedly made great strides
used as a raw material in the production of many in fulfilling its mandate in the second half of last
chemicals such as acetic acid, acetaldehyde, ace- year.
tone, ethyl acetate, ethylene, carbon dioxide and It brought the value of imported energy and
others. fuel down to $54mn during that period, accord-
Over the past few years, the Egyptian ing to figures released by the central bank. ™

FAR receives another takeover

offer from Remus Horizons

SENEGAL REMUS Horizons, a private investment fund,
has submitted a new takeover offer for Austral-
ia’s FAR Ltd, a minority shareholder in the San-
gomar block offshore Senegal.
FAR received the off-market proposal from
Remus on April 14, one day before a scheduled
general meeting of shareholders. The top item
on the agenda for that meeting was a vote on the
company’s plan to sell its minority stake in San-
gomar to Woodside Energy, the Australian firm
that operates the joint venture set up to develop
the block. However, shareholders voted on
April 15 to give themselves time to consider the
new takeover bid. They approved a motion to
adjourn the meeting and reconvene on April 28.
According to a company statement, Remus
has offered to buy 100% of shares in the Austral-
ian company at a price of AUD0.021 per share,
or AUD209.6mn ($162mn) in total. This offer is
“conditional only on shareholders rejecting the
sale of FAR’s interest in the RSSD project and the
FAR directors confirming that there is no inten-
tion to dispose of this interest prior to the closing
of the takeover offer,” the statement said.
These appear to be the same terms that the The Sangomar offshore block holds about 645mn boe (Image: Cairn Energy)
investment fund proposed last November, when
it submitted a non-binding takeover proposal. whereby shareholders may exit their investment
FAR did not say whether Remus’ new offer for cash at a price [that] represents superior
would have any effect on its own position. The value compared with remaining a shareholder
Australian company has indicated previously and should be seen as attractive when consid-
that it favours the sale of its RSSD stake to ered in the context of the significant risks and
Woodside, which is already the majority owner uncertainties of remaining a shareholder.”
of the joint venture. FAR received another non-binding takeover
Even so, Remus has argued that its proposal is proposal from Russia’s Lukoil earlier this year.
the better option. In a letter outlining the terms However, the privately owned Russian major
of its bid, it said that its offer of AUD0.021 per decided recently not to go forward with the bid.
share “represents approximately 23% more than For its part, Woodside has offered to buy
the cash backing of AUD0.0171 per share that FAR’s stake in RSSD on the same terms as those
would exist” in the event that FAR proceeded proposed last November by ONGC Videsh
with the sale to Woodside. Vankorneft, a subsidiary of India’s ONGC
It also said: “The Remus offer provides a route Videsh Ltd (OVL).

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