NZOG to offer 40M share buyback

Tuesday 30th August 2016

New Zealand Oil & Gas is to make a tender offer to shareholders to accelerate the buy back of up to 40 million shares, the company announced.

Timed for Sept. 16, the initiative is intended to "create a liquidity event that should spur trading" and allow shareholders to cash out at a premium to the current share price of 50 cents a share, unchanged since yesterday.

"The maximum price the company intends to pay in the tender is 55 cents, which is a premium of 13.5 percent to the 30-day weighted average market price and more than 14 percent above the average price paid by the company for shares purchased this year," the company said in a statement to the NZX.

Approval to buy back up to 64 million shares was obtained by more than 73 percent of shareholders at a special meeting a year ago, but the stock traded in such small volumes "it would take years to complete the buy back at current rates of progress," said acting chief executive Andrew Jefferies.

“The company is reviewing acquisitions of assets coming to market. The asset we understand best is our own, and therefore it makes sense to buy our shares when we see value," Jefferies said. On-market buy backs are intended to continue after the tender.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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