Eni SpA Sells Remaining Galp Energia Stake
November 20 2015 - 6:52AM
Dow Jones News
By Eric Sylvers
MILAN--Eni SpA [ENI.MI] Friday sold its remaining 4% stake in
Portugal's Galp Energia for 325 million euros ($347.7 million) as
the Italian oil and gas company continues offloading peripheral
assets to confront cheap crude prices and free up funds for its
core exploration and production arm.
Eni sold the Galp stake to institutional investors at EUR9.81 a
share, 2.6% below Thursday's closing share price. Eni had
previously announced that it would sell the stake, which was being
held to cover a bond convertible, into Galp shares that expired
earlier this month.
In its four-year plan presented in March, Eni committed to
selling EUR8 billion in assets by the end of 2018. Like its
competitors, Eni has struggled to adjust its strategy following the
plunge in crude prices since the middle of last year and is the
only major oil company to have cut its dividend in the wake of what
analysts and executives expect to be a long period of depressed
prices.
So far this year, including the Galp stake, Eni has sold EUR1.5
billion in assets. Chief Financial Officer Massimo Mondazzi said a
month ago that the company wants to raise EUR3 billion in asset
sales by the end of the year.
To reach its multi-year targets, Eni is also planning to sell
stakes in some of its recent oil and gas finds. The first on that
list is likely to be a portion of its 50% holding in a massive gas
field off the coast of Mozambique.
Eni also has an 8% stake in Italian natural gas grid operator
Snam Rete Gas. Eni has announced it will sell that stake, which has
a market value of about EUR1.3 billion, once a bond convertible
into those shares expires in January.
Since 2012, Eni raised EUR3.28 billion selling its entire
one-third stake in Galp in a series of transactions.
Eni shares traded down 1.4% at EUR14.72 while Galp dropped 3.3%
to EUR9.73.
Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2015 06:37 ET (11:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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