North Sea oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy is planning to list on the stock market and is today being tipped to become an immediate contender to join the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s biggest companies.
It follows a period of rapid growth for the firm, with high-profile deals for Marubeni, Summit Exploration and Siccar Point Energy.
Those transactions gave the group stakes in six of the top ten largest oil and gas fields in the UK Continental Shelf, including Cambo and Rosebank.
Ithaca was founded in 2004 and previously was listed in both London and Toronto. The Times says it was valued at $646 million when it was taken private by Delek Group, of Israel, in 2017.
Since then Ithaca has struck deals including the $2billion purchase of Chevron’s North Sea portfolio, the $1.5billion acquisition of Cambo majority owner Siccar Point Energy, a $280million deal for Marubeni Oil and Gas UK and spending $224 million to acquire Summit Exploration and Production.
The deals mean it is now the sixth largest company in the UK North Sea by production volume, behind Harbour Energy, Total, BP, Shell and Neo Energy.
Ithaca said in a statement on Tuesday that the cash raised would help it become a “key player in providing energy security to the UK”, at a time when cuts in Russian gas supplies are causing shortages in Europe.
"I am incredibly proud of the transformation Ithaca Energy has undergone over the past three years to become one of the UK's leading independent oil and gas companies," Executive Chair Gilad Myerson said.
The IPO will involve the sale of new shares to repay existing shareholder debt and the costs of the listing, while Delek also may sell existing shares, though it will remain the controlling shareholder.
The IPO will be led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as joint global coordinators.
Last month a Bloomberg report suggested that Ithaca could be valued at up to $6billion and may raise $1billion in fresh financing through a listing.
That would give the company a market value in excess of £5billion and would put it in the FTSE 100.
Ithaca declined to specify what its valuation might be. Results for the first six months of this year showed a gross profit of $613million on revenue of more than $1.3billion.