Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), a South Korean state-owned oil & gas company, has reportedly hired The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), a Canadian commercial banking company, to help it find a financial partner that could acquire a 30% stake in its UK subsidiary, Dana Petroleum (Dana).
Reports cite, the entire process is expected to start off early in May, when the company would begin circulating confidential information packages to interested parties to carry out their due diligence checks upon the business.
According to a report by Today Online, KNOC had acquired Aberdeen-based Dana Petroleum, a renowned exploration & production firm with operations spread across the Netherlands, the North Sea & Egypt, back in 2010 in a $2.9 billion deal, which also included the company’s bondholders.
Back then, the acquisition was identified as the largest hostile takeover deal carried out by a South Korean company, that was keen on increasing the nation’s oil reserves.
Boasting of an average production capacity of 65,000 oil & gas barrels per day with 70% of its operations located in the North Sea, Dana Petroleum is likely to appeal to a number of private equity funds that are already operating across the region.
Over the past five-year period, private equity-backed investors have entered the UK’s oil & gas sector. The trend began when major oil & gas firms were forced to sell-off their assets due to the pressure created by the decline in oil prices, where they fell to near 14-year lows, trading at $26 per barrel back in 2016.
According to reports, Dana Petroleum’s stake sale is currently underway but further details pertaining to the matter have not been disclosed yet.