Deltic's Biggest Shareholder Rejects Reabold Bid

The largest shareholder in Deltic Energy, IPGL Holdings, has rejected the share-only bid that Reabold has made for the company, Deltic said July 21, citing a letter received the day before from IPGL.

Before making its offer earlier this month, Reabold had sounded out unidentified shareholders to see what level of support its bid might expect to have. Its existing production and other plans were cited as advantages: Deltic is still many months away from first gas, if that; and is burning its way through its cash reserves, said Reabold.

IPGL however said it rejected the offer and reiterated its continuing support of Deltic's management team, its technical capability, its focused asset base with high impact potential and current strategy. IPGL holds 236,432,780 shares in Deltic, representing 16.8% of the issued share capital and it does not have a shareholding in Reabold, it said, saying it was happy for the letter to be published.

Deltic said it continued to believe that the bid is too low. It also "lacks any compelling strategic rationale, commercial logic or sufficient operational synergies; and does not reflect the commercial and technical risks associated with the Reabold portfolio and their potentially dilutive impact on Deltic's own portfolio and prospects."