French energy giant Total said it has reached a binding agreement with Occidental to acquire Anadarko’s assets in Africa for a consideration of $8.8 billion (R127 billion) – only in the event of successful completion of Occidental’s ongoing bid for Anadarko.
Mid-sized US firm Occidental is in a fierce takeover battle for Anadarko with the much bigger Chevron.
French Oil and Gas multinational Total is set to buy the African assets of Anadarko Petroleum, an international oil company headquartered in Texas, US for $8.8 billion (~KSh889 billion). Total will purchase the assets from Occidental Petroleum which has just won a bid to acquire Anadarko for $55 billion.
Occidental Petroleum had been competing with Chevron, another oil giant, to acquire Anadarko each offering more than $30 billion to acquire the multinational. Anadarko’s board members have accepted Occidental’s deal after it raised the offer amount to $55 billion.
Warren Buffet’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway pumped $10 billion into the Occidental – Anadarko’s purchase deal. In exchange, the company will get 100,000 preference shares in Occidental that will pay 8 percent dividend annually and a warrant to purchase 80 million ordinary shares worth $5 billion in Occidental.
Occidental will sell the newly acquired assets from Anadarko’s business in South Africa, Mozambique, Algeria, and Ghana to the French company Total.
Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne said, “These are world-class assets with great upside, and we welcome the opportunity to leverage our expertise in [liquefied natural gas] and deepwater developments as well as our long history of operating in Africa.”
Total’s expansion into more African businesses follows a similar move by its rival Rubis Energie which recently purchased Kenyan oil retailer Kenol Kobil.