Jason Corcoran in Moscow.
Renaissance Capital has won a duel with Credit Suisse over London-listed Sibir Energy after a lightning strike by the Russia bank trumped a book-build offer by the Swiss bank.
Acting for oil producer Gazpromneft, Rencap acquired over 16% of Sibir last Thurdsay after trumping a rival offer by TNK-BP valuing the oil producer at 430p a share.
Credit Suisse had started an accelerated book-build of Sibir’s shares on behalf of Anglo-Russian joint oil venture TNK-BP but had cancelled the offer on Thursday after Rencap’s intervened offering shareholders 500p a share on behalf of Gazpromneft.
In just under three hours, Rencap had snapped up 16% of Sibir through an accelerated buyout in a deal valuing the stake at $450m. Big sellers are understood to have been fund managers M&A and Blackrock.
Andrew Cornwaithe, co-head of investment banking at Rencap told EmergingMarket.me: “Our structure to counter TNK-BP’s offer on a first-come first-served basis proved to be an attractive one for shareholders. In two and a half hours, we had achieved our client Gazpromneft’s objective in acquiring a sizeable minority position in Sibir.”
Sibir said a third offer unrelated to the others was also withdrawn, but did not identify the bidder. Oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil are believed to have expressed an interest but did not bid.
The outcome is the slap in the face for Steven Hellman, head of investment banking at Credit Suisse. His team must have thought their book-build was a done deal until Rencap’s day raid forced him to round up the wagons and retreat.
The deal could accelerate a full merger between Gazpromneft and Sibir which has been mooted for some time. The Kremlin may have give a tacit nod to Gazpromneft management which is something the Anglo-Russian joint venture TNK-BP would have struggled with.
Insiders said Gazpromneft has an arrangement with some of the Sibir’s shareholders about taking further stakes in the company. Watch this space.
