Although later than originally expected, (29,43 EUR, -1,19%) successfully completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Petronas’ E&P operating entity in Pakistan on 11 July 2011. The two parties signed an agreement in September 2010 that was supposed to be completed within a few months. The purchase includes the Mubarak, Mehar and Daphro exploration licenses and the Mehar and Mubarak development and production leases. The parties did not disclose the acquisition price. With the completion of the transaction, OMV’s production in Pakistan will increase by about 1,000boe/d to 15,000boe/d. The firm targets increasing this production level to approximately 25,000boe/d by 2014.
Our view:
We expect a neutral market reaction to the news since it was only a question of time before the deal was completed. We are positive about OMV’s recent upstream efforts (i.e. the addition of six new wells in Romania, the discovery of a potentially large gas field in Romania, the completion of the Pakistan acquisition). On the other hand, of the companies under coverage, remains the most exposed to civil unrest in the Middle East. We also note that OMV’s production growth has been consistently below the industry average since 2006 and we do not expect this trend to reverse given the large weight of Romania in OMV’s production and reserves.