Oil firm Neptune Energy aims for IPO, but not this year
(Reuters) - Private equity-backed British oil firm Neptune Energy still plans an initial public offering though it does not see an opportunity to list this year, the exploration and production (E&P) company's chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.
Neptune, founded by the former head of Britain's Centrica Sam Laidlaw, was working on being "IPO ready" but current conditions on financial markets made it difficult to launch one at the moment, CEO Pete Jones said in an interview.
"While valuations have improved, we still do not believe markets are fairly valuing E&P companies," Jones said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Norway.
Asked if he saw a potential window of opportunity for an IPO later this year, he said: "Not right now, we don't see the opening right now."
Norwegian oil and gas firm Vaar Energi listed on the Oslo stock exchange in February, making it the most valuable pure-play oil exploration and production company to list globally in almost a decade.
Jones said gas-heavy Neptune Energy, unlike Vaar, was looking for a listing in London, where different rules applied.
"It's just a different scale and different question for us," he said without elaborating.
Neptune, whose output was over 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half of 2022, is owned by China Investment Corporation (CIC), Carlyle Group Inc and CVC Capital Partners.
Separately, Neptune Energy said on Tuesday it teamed up with Horisont Energi to explore CO2 storage projects off Norway as it aims to store more carbon by 2030 than it emits directly and indirectly.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Gwladys Fouche, Terje Solsvik and Susan Fenton)
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