British multinational oil and gas firm, BP plc, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) on Tuesday announced a joint bid to buy 50 per cent of Israel’s NewMed Energy in a deal valued at about $2 billion, the Times of Israel reports.
According to the report, the two energy firms will buy 45 per cent of the free floating shares the public holds in NewMed Energy, formerly Delek Drilling (part of Yitzhak Tshuva’s Delek Group), and about 5 per cent of Delek Group’s stake to take the Israeli offshore natural gas producer private. Shares in NewMed jumped almost 30 per cent in early afternoon trading in Tel Aviv.
NewMed CEO, Yossi Abu, hailed the BP-Adnoc deal as a springboard to “catapult NewMed Energy from the regional to the global stage”.
“The offer we received is the result of the warm relationships and bridges we have built in recent years with the energy companies working in the region, and is an important vote of confidence – the most significant given to the Israeli gas market, in general, and to the business and assets of NewMed Energy, in particular,” Abu said.
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Montather Rassoul