This acquisition adds approximately 1,000 boepd to Verus’s daily production. The Wytch Farm field is located on the south coast of England.
The transaction will be funded by a combination of equity and debt. Verus’s existing lender Nedbank Limited supports the transaction and the existing Reserves Based Lending (RBL) Facility will be amended to increase the facility amount to USD 200 million and to allow for the participation of two additional banks who are also supportive of the transaction.
Verus CEO Alan Curran said: “Verus is pleased to have signed the SPA with Ithaca. This transaction builds upon our Boa acquisition last year and increases our expected net production in 2018 to around 3,700 boepd and reserves to approximately 10mmboe.
“The transaction is consistent with the Verus strategy of expanding our production base and cash flow. Both Boa and Wytch Farm are high quality, low cost, long life assets with strong cash generation. Verus will look to reinvest this cash flow, along with our significant remaining equity and debt capacity, in further production and development opportunities.”
The transaction is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of a number of conditions including pre-emption rights of existing joint venture partners and regulatory approvals and is expected to complete by the middle of 2018.
Backed by Europe’s leading upstream private equity company HitecVision, Verus is focused on the creation of value through the acquisition of high quality production assets and, over time, through increased exposure to development projects.
