Mozambique was the most targeted nation by value for mergers and acquisitions in Africa in the first six months of 2013, according to a sub-Saharan Africa Investment Banking Analysis report for the first half of the year, authored by Thomson Reuters.
The South easternmost country on the continent accounted for 42 percent of activity due to PetroChina’s $4.2 billion acquisition of 28.57% Interest in ENI East Africa from Italian major ENI and a $2.5 billion offer for Videocon, the report revealed.
Nigerian companies acquired four acreages from a partnership including Shell, TOTAL and ENI, in deals worth a total of $2.3Billion in Nigeria in 2012. The same year TOTAL on its own sold its 20 percent stake in an acreage to China Petrochemical Corp(Sinopec), for $2.4Billion. Nigerian Oando’s ongoing acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ stakes in six acreages in Nigeria for $1.79Billion is scheduled to be completed in Setember 2013, but this has been Mozambique’s year, with a single deal netting $4.2Billion. The acreage is ENI operated deepwater Area 4, where ENI claims its discoveries in two hydrocarbon complexes total ovr 70Trillion cubic feet of gas.
The Thomson Reuters report said South Africa was the next most targeted nation with 28 percent of activity. Nigeria followed with 10 percent.
