Ithaca Energy acquires Valiant Petroleum

Valiant Petroleum's shared soared by nearly 30 per cent Friday after Ithaca Energy announced it would acquire the company for 203m pounds.

The acquisition will more than double Ithaca's 2013 production forecast to 14,000 to 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. However Ithaca's shares fell 10% in early morning trading.

Valiant has a portfolio of production, development and exploration assets in the UK and Norway.

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Under the offer, Valiant shareholders will be entitled to receive 307p in cash and 1.33 Ithaca consideration shares for each Valiant share.

The deal represents a premium of 37% to Valiant's closing price of 346p per share Thursday on the London Stock Exchange.

It comes after Valiant put itself up for sale in September as part of a strategic review.

Ithaca had also received a number of offers.

The completion of the transaction is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

In a separate announcement, Valiant said it has completed drilling of the Timon prospect in the UK's North Sea.

The company reported that the Upper Jurassic sands located in the area of the UK Northern North Sea known as blocks 211/11b and 211/16b had been found to be poorly developed in the target location.

The company said that the well would be plugged and abandoned as a dry hole.

The partners in the P1633 licence are MPX North Sea Limited, Agora Oil & Gas (UK) Limited a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn Energy, Taqa Bratani, Wintershall E&P, Sorgenia E&P (UK) and Valiant Causeway.

RD