Kerr-McGee Corp, the US oil and gas company that ended a proxy battle with billionaire Carl Icahn in April, agreed to sell its North Sea energy assets for US$3.5 billion to reduce debt and increase shareholder returns.
Kerr-McGee sold North Sea assets including 10 fields in production to AP Moeller-Maersk A/S, the world's largest container-shipping company, for US$2.95 billion, the Oklahoma City-based company said yesterday in a statement on PR Newswire. The company also sold holdings in four fields to Centrica Plc, the UK's largest energy supplier, for about US$566 million.
Kerr-McGee chief executive Luke Corbett in April agreed to sell less profitable units and buy back shares to boost the stock price and end a proxy fight with Icahn and a group of investors that bought 7.7 percent of the company. Kerr-McGee, which got a fifth of its oil output from the fields sold, plans to use all the proceeds from the sales to cut debt.
"Divestiture of the North Sea assets will facilitate the company's plan to spend a reduced amount of capital while achieving a higher per-share production growth rate," Kerr-McGee said in the statement.
The company's UK holdings produced about 77,700 barrels of oil equivalent daily in the second quarter. The assets being sold include proven reserves of approximately 231 million barrels of oil equivalent as of the end of June.
JP Morgan Chase & Co and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc advised Kerr-McGee. Citigroup Inc advised Maersk.
Kerr-McGee will get about US$3.1 billion in cash after tax from the sales, which are scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter, it said.
The company, which claims to have drilled the world's first commercial oil well out of sight of land in 1947, had its credit ratings cut to junk from investment grade after announcing on April 14 that it would buy back US$4 billion in stock at a 15 percent markup.
The buyback helped swell the company's debt to US$7 billion.
Icahn and investor Barry Rosenstein, who were campaigning for seats on the company's board, ended their fight after the buyback.
Kerr-McGee is also trying to sell a chemicals plant and fields in the Gulf of Mexico.
Maersk expects the acquisition to have a "modest, but positive" effect on its results for this year, based on current oil prices, the company said in a separate statement to the Copenhagen Exchange.
"This will strengthen the company both in terms of earnings, but also strategically," Stig Frederiksen, an analyst at HSH Gudme in Copenhagen, said regarding Maersk.
Maersk on Friday secured control of 95.6 percent of Royal P&O Nedlloyd NV allowing it to complete its 2.3 billion-euro (US$2.8 billion) takeover of the Rotterdam-based company.
Centrica will add about 1.1 billion thermal units of gas, enough to meet 2 percent of Centrica's gas customer demand, by acquiring from Kerr-McGee the interests in the Andrew, Brae, Buckland and Skene fields, Centrica said yesterday in another statement. The assets also increase Centrica's holdings by 11 million barrels of oil.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique