Chapter 399 £5 billion financing

Negotiations for United Energy Group to acquire National Grid's natural gas are still ongoing.

However, their financing plan has made progress.

The background is that in Block 1 of the Colo Offshore Oil Field, two other production wells have started producing oil. Currently, their four oil wells have reached a daily production of 50,000 barrels of crude oil, and more oil wells are being drilled. among.

Currently, there is no local petroleum refining industry in Kolo, so they need to export crude oil directly. The current international oil price is around US$50 per barrel, which is equivalent to the daily income of Kolo Petroleum Company of nearly US$2.5 million...

You know, as the number of wells completed and put into production in Block 1 continues to increase - COSL has currently transferred three drilling platforms to carry out oil drilling here at the same time, and has contacted to rent two platforms nearby...

After their domestic personnel arrive and become familiar with the equipment, there will be five drilling platforms carrying out drilling operations at the same time in the entire No. 1 block.

According to Colo Petroleum Company's plan, they plan to produce more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day within the year, and by then their daily income will exceed US$50 million...

A by-product of the cooperation with COSL is that in order to reach an agreement on the proportion of local oil workers hired in Kolo, in addition to assisting Kolo Petroleum Company in recruiting a new group of oil workers, they also worked with Kolo Petroleum Company affiliated companies on the outskirts of Loti. In cooperation with the human resources department, a training base was built.

After all, offshore oil operations are different from those on land and require more technical training, including various types of offshore escape and protection, as well as well control, hydrogen sulfide prevention, oil and gas firefighting, etc...

For example, for basic drilling workers, in terms of work skills, it will not be a big problem to learn slowly on the job. For example, Huaxia first adopted the "master leads the apprentice" method, but in terms of safety, it really needs to be compared. Systematic training.

Also because of this series of positive news about Colo Petroleum Company, the share price of United Energy Group, which owns 30% of its shares, rose slightly again, reaching around 12.5 pounds.

Correspondingly, their financing this time went more smoothly.

This time to acquire the natural gas business of National Grid of England, United Energy Group’s offer is 5 billion pounds.

Therefore, their corresponding total financing scale is 5 billion pounds.

Among them, 2 billion pounds were subscribed by various bank investment departments, including Barclays Bank, and some investment institutions.

Another billion pounds is divided among some British companies and families.

This includes the £200 million invested by the Bute family.

The total of 3 billion pounds of funds above was all used to purchase the convertible bonds of United Energy Group. According to regulations, they can choose to convert their convertible bonds at any time within two years at the average price of United Energy Group’s shares on that day. The bonds were converted into common shares of United Energy Group.

Another 2 billion pounds of funds were contributed by the West African Group. They borrowed directly from Standard Chartered Bank and subscribed for new shares of United Energy Group at a price of 12.5 pounds.

United Energy Group will issue 160 million new shares to West Africa Group at a price of 12.5 pounds.

In this way, United Energy Group has raised £5 billion in funding.

Of course, it will take some time for the funds to arrive, but the funds themselves are not necessarily for the acquisition of National Grid's natural gas business.

The so-called false and true, will this be regarded as a smoke bomb for the acquisition of Unocal? We still need to wait for subsequent developments to make adjustments.

As for Unocal, Barron has learned from Goldman Sachs that they have begun to contact CNOOC to discuss financing their acquisition of Unocal.

This time CNOOC acquires Unocal, and in the United States, Goldman Sachs Group and JP Morgan Chase will serve as their financiers.

In the near future, it is likely that they will make their first bid for Unocal.

“West Africa Group chooses to directly subscribe for new shares in United Energy Group?”

It can be said that in this financing of United Energy Group, only West Africa Group chose to subscribe for their new shares at a price of 12.5 pounds, while other local British capitals chose to purchase convertible bonds of United Energy Group.

This can also be seen. In fact, they still believe that after nearly a month of rising prices, the current stock price of United Energy Group is still at a high level.

But this does not mean that they are not optimistic about the future development of United Energy Group, otherwise they would not be willing to participate in this financing.

It can only be said that they think that after the market calms down, there may be a slight relapse in the short term and the stock price may fall.

At that time, they can complete the debt-for-equity swap at a lower price.

After all, no one’s money comes from the strong wind. If they can get more benefits, they don’t mind waiting for some time.

This time, the convertible bonds have a two-year maturity period.

In their view, no matter what, within the past two years, there will always be times when the stock price is at a low point.

However, Earl Bute is aware of the close relationship between the West African Group and Barron, and now he sees that they have chosen to directly subscribe for new shares of United Energy Group at a price of 12.5 pounds, so he will have questions.

"After all, we always need to give other investors confidence, so subscribing for new shares at this price also shows that the other parties recognize the current stock price."

Barron's explanation made sense, but as to whether it was really the case, it was difficult for Earl Bute to tell for a while.

Argent Real Estate Group has also decided to start the IPO process.

But before that, they are also preparing to further "optimize" the company's financial performance so that they can get better stock price reflection in future listings.

In terms of their residential areas, although the low-rent housing promised by the government and the luxury apartments on their own land were built almost at the same time, it is obvious that the construction progress of those luxury apartments is much faster than that of low-rent housing.

By now, luxury residential areas including the "King's Mansion" have been on sale for some time.

The sales situation is considered good, but also because the overall renewal plan of the King's Cross area has just entered the second phase, some supporting facilities are not yet particularly complete, so if you want to sell them all, you still need to wait for a certain period of time. .

But they also had a way, and because of their confidence in the future development of this area, DS Asset Management Company and a fund owned by the Bute family jointly invested in the establishment of a real estate brokerage company, and paid a certain proportion of the purchase price to Argent Real Estate Group, and then they Most of the remaining properties are on pre-sale basis.

As shown in the accounts of Argent Real Estate Group, most of the high-end residences in the first phase have been sold, and the sales situation is excellent.