Gas battle looming

Sunday, April 26, 2009

CENTRICA could be drawn into a billion-pound bidding war for the North Sea’s biggest independent gas group after it emerged that three continental utilities are in talks with Venture Production about potential spoiler offers.

Venture’s bankers at Rothschild have been trying to attract a white knight since Centrica bought 22% of the company in a stock-market raid last month.

It is understood that RWE, the German giant, and Sweden’s Vattenfall have been invited to bid and are poring over Venture’s books in preparation for offers for the £1.2 billion company.

Dong Energy, the Danish state-owned firm, hired Morgan Stanley for a bid but is now thought to have cooled on the idea because of Venture’s high asking price.

Mike Wagstaff, Venture’s chief executive, is holding out for more than the 725p a share that Centrica paid.

Dong boss Anders Eldrup declined to comment, but said Britain was “very attractive” and that he had investor blessing to raise the group’s gearing levels by up to £2 billion for acquisitions.

When you look at the UK five to ten years ahead, there is a mismatch between supply and demand because many facilities are quite old and need to be replaced,” he said.

“We hope to play a significant role in the rebuilding of capacity in the UK.”

This story was featured The Times Website.

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