British oil major BP has signed a deal with Rosneft to sell its 50 percent stake in the TNK-BP joint venture for $17.1 bln in cash and 12.84 percent of Rosneft’s stock, BP said on Monday.
“BP today announced that it has signed heads of terms to sell its 50 per cent share in TNK-BP to Rosneft, the major Russian integrated oil and gas company. Under the heads of terms Rosneft has agreed in principle to buy BP’s share in TNK-BP,” the UK oil giant said in a statement.
“BP intends to use $4.8 billion of the cash consideration to acquire a further 5.66 percent stake in Rosneft from the Russian government. BP would acquire the Rosneft shares from the Russian Government at a price of $8 per share (representing a premium of 12 per cent to the Rosneft share closing price on the bid date: 18 October 2012),” the statement said.
Therefore, after the proposed transaction is completed, BP will acquire a total 18.5 percent stake in Rosneft and net $12.3 billion in cash.
“This would result in BP holding 19.75 percent of Rosneft stock, when aggregated with BP’s 1.25 percent current holding in Rosneft.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Rosneft’s deal with BP was important for the Russian energy sector and the domestic economy as a whole.
“This is a good signal, a major deal, which is important not only for the energy sector but also for the entire economy,” Putin said at a meeting with Rosneft head Igor Sechin.
Rosneft has also signed a similar deal with the AAR consortium (Alfa Group, Access Industries and Renova) of Russian billionaire shareholders in TNK-BP to acquire AAR’s 50 percent interest in the joint venture, Sechin said.
“Rosneft has agreed heads of terms with the AAR consortium … to acquire AAR’s 50 percent interest in TNK-BP for cash consideration of $28.0 billion, subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements, corporate and regulatory approvals and certain other conditions,” Rosneft said in a statement.
“The transaction with AAR is entirely independent of the transaction with BP.”
Rosneft’s deal for an all-out purchase of TNK-BP would make it the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, with higher crude production than global energy titans Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.