ENOC SNAP DRAGON

EXPLORATION giant Dragon Oil has agreed to a takeover by a state-owned Middle East group in a deal that values the London and Dublin listed company at £2.3billion.

Dubai’s Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) is to pay £1.1bn for the 48% of Dragon it does not already own.

Independent directors advised shareholders to accept the 455p per share bid which follows an approach in June. The shares rose 36½p to 446½p.

Refinery group ENOC, which also runs terminals and service stations, is keen on exploration and using Dragon’s expertise.

Its main assets are oil and gas fields in Turkmenistan where companies have been pushing to open up wells in the rush to find new energy sources.

Merrill Lynch analyst Taleh Musayev said: “450p is the least shareholders will take but it’s likely to go through.”

But Peter Hutton, oil analyst at NCB brokers, urged investors to hold out and raised his price target for the stock to 805p.

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