Trading halts for Beach, Delhi investor
SHARES in Beach Petroleum and Australian Onshore Energy Fund, an investor in Delhi Petroleum, were put in a trading halt yesterday.
Both companies requested the halt pending an announcement.
The halt is in force until the start of trading on Monday or when the announcement is made.
The Australian reported yesterday there was mounting speculation Beach would make a bid for Delhi, countering a $474 million offer from Santos.
Under the Santos offer, supported by Westpac Funds Management (WFML) which manages the Australian Offshore Energy Funds, holders of Floating Interest Energy LinkeD Securities which were used to partially fund the original purchase of Delhi from ExxonMobil, will be offered a cash payment of $83.25 for each note which has a $100 face value.
The notes were trading around $60 each before the Santos bid was announced.
WFML has not issued a scheme booklet for the Santos bid, nor released an independent report prepared by KPMG.