North Sea oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy's planned initial public offering (IPO) in London is set to be priced at the bottom of the range at 250 pence per share, a bookrunner on the deal said on Tuesday.
Ithaca's market debut will be watched for indications of investor appetite for energy producers in the UK North Sea, an ageing basin where private-equity firms have in recent years bought assets, but avoided public listings, which can raise cash but also increase public scrutiny.
On Monday, bookrunners revised their price guidance to between 250 and 270 pence per share, compared with the previous price range of 250 to 310 pence, which had implied a market value of 2.5 billion pounds to 3.1 billion pounds ($2.87 billion to $3.56 billion).
The planned IPO of Ithaca - owned by Tel Aviv-listed Delek Group - on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday has been closely watched in an IPO market starved of activity since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Delek bought Ithaca in April from private equity-backed Siccar Point Energy, already flagging its intention to float.
Ithaca, which produces around 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, also holds stakes in the yet-to-produce fields Rosebank, TotalEnergies-operated, and Cambo, where Shell is trying to sell its minority stake.
Books were multiple times oversubscribed at the set price and above, the bookrunner said, adding that they would close at 1300 GMT on Tuesday.
The last oil and gas producer to float on the main London stock exchange was eastern Mediterranean-focused Energean in 2018.
($1 = 0.8716 pounds)
UK's biggest oil and gas producers - https://tmsnrt.rs/3wP1xyu
(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Barbara Lewis)
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