Offshore staff
LONDON– LetterOne and BASF have signed a business combination agreement to merge their oil and gas businesses and create Wintershall DEA.
Closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected in the first half of 2019. Until closing, DEA and Wintershall will continue to operate as independent companies.
Wintershall DEA will be the largest independent European exploration and production company, with activity in 12 countries across Europe, Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East. The combined business would have had pro-forma production of about 575,000 boe/d in 2017, almost 70% of which comes from natural gas. Production is expected to rise to between 750,000 and 800,000 boe/d in the early 2020s as the company executes its business plan.
Wintershall DEA will be jointly headquartered in Hamburg and Kassel.
Mario Mehren, CEO of Wintershall, will be the CEO of Wintershall DEA. Maria Moraeus Hanssen, CEO of DEA, will be the deputy CEO and COO. In addition, Thilo Wieland, member of the board of executive directors of Wintershall, and Hugo Dijkgraaf, managing director of Wintershall Norge, will be on the five-member management board of Wintershall DEA. The CFO appointment will be announced later.
BASF will initially hold 67% and LetterOne will hold 33% of Wintershall DEA. This does not take into account Wintershall’s gas transportation business. However, at closing of the transaction, Wintershall DEA will issue preference shares to BASF reflecting the value of Wintershall’s gas transportation business. Before IPO, but no later than 36 months after closing, these preference shares will be converted into additional ordinary shares in Wintershall DEA for BASF.
09/28/2018
