Shell likely to sell Woodside stake to institutional investors rather than to strategic buyer Royal Dutch Shell’s 23.1% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum to institutional investors rather than to one strategic buyer, according to a wire report. A Reuters report cited bankers who said the stake in the Australian oil company is obviously a potential disposal for Ben van Beurden, who is to start in his role of chief executive of Shell on 1 January. The new CEO will indicate his strategy for Shell when the FTSE-100 energy company announces its 4Q13 results, the item said.
Reuters could not verify Shell’s plans for the stake, the report said. Woodside and Shell refused to comment about any plans for the stake, the article added.
The bankers cited by the report said other global investor-owned energy companies that are large enough to acquire the stake are also looking to sell assets. The article estimated a valuation of about USD 6.4bn (EUR 4.67bn) for the stake.
Strategic buyers, such as the leading Chinese oil companies, and national oil companies of nations such as Thailand or India might be deterred by Shell’s unsuccessful attempt at acquiring outright ownership of Woodside in 2001, the article said.
One banker cited by the report said finding a bidder might prove difficult. Selling the stake would involve a governmental review, the banker added. Although Woodside is no longer of such strategic importance as when Shell’s takeover attempt was blocked, it remains the biggest independent oil and gas group in Australia. That would likely mean that Chinese national oil companies would not be welcome as bidders, the banker said.
The banker added that sovereign wealth funds from Southeast Asia or the Middle East might consider buying small stakes, but added that such groups would be unlikely to buy the entire stake.
The banker argued that Shell would dispose of the stake through a mixture of share placing, strategic sales and probably by Woodside buying back shares.
A second banker cited by the report said potential strategic buyers had bee sounded out about buying the entire stake, but without success. The second banker predicted that Shell would sell the stake to institutional investors via a market placing.
Source Newswire Round-up