Press has come to light that Chinese state run Sinopec has been in buyout talks that value the company at $130m - which is multiples of the current market cap.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8163606
Theres no guarantee that an offer will be placed and the company this morning indicated so, while not denying the rumours.
Yet again we see that China is moving to pick up commodity assets globally, and pulling no punches. Urals has a few debt issues, but Sinopec could be buying up some serious assets for a pinch here, even at the $130m price tag.
According to the latest report, UEN’s P1(proved)/P2(probable) reserves following the Taas-Yuriakh acquisition and an estimates upgrade at the Dulisma fields stand at a cumulative 1.183 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). Admittedly Urals are attempting to sell some non-core assets and do a 50% farm-in at Taas-SRB which could reduce attributable reserves to about 900m or so boe.
UEN has in place a development timeline that shows Taas and Dulisma production targets of 56,000 bopd in 2012 and 67,000 bopd in 2015... admittedly a long way off... but the upside is clearly considerable owing to the sheer scale of some of these assets.
The $130m price tag looks probable to me, but I guess it depends on state intervention. Are the Russians going to allow the Chinese State to buy their assets? I doubt it, but nonetheless it throws a light on how cheap urals energy is right now...
Anyone have any further info?
