Cairn Energy received another lucrative endorsement of its exploration record in India when its subsidiary in the country managed to raise $625m (£312.5m) development funding from backers in east Asia, despite challenging conditions in global capital markets.
Cairn India won funding pledges from a Singapore investment fund and increased investment from Malaysian oil giant Petronas in a deal which will give it additional firepower to invest in expansion opportunities and will value the unit at around £6bn.
While the transaction will result in Cairn Energy's holding being diluted slightly from 69% to 65% it will leave the Edinburgh-based member of the FTSE-100 blue-chip index sitting on a controlling stake in Cairn India valued in the deal at around £3.9bn.
By contrast, Cairn Energy had a market capitalisation of £3.6bn on the London Stock Exchange yesterday, when shares in the company closed down 179p, or 6%, at £27.66 each. The decline came on a day when the FTSE-100 index plunged and the US dollar lost further ground.
Against the backdrop of financial market turbulence, the fund-raising provides fresh proof of the value which investors are prepared to place on Cairn India at a time when rapid growth of Asian economies is expected to help maintain strong demand for oil and gas.
The Indian-listed subsidiary's interests include the acreage in Rajasthan state on which Cairn Energy made a series of bumper finds starting in January 2004, containing more than one billion barrels oil in place.
Cairn India is confident of starting production from Rajasthan in 2009, and has made progress towards agreeing a deal to build a key pipeline to take oil to market.
Petronas has been an investor in Cairn India since 2006, when the the state-owned Malaysian oil and gas firm paid around £356m for a 10% stake in advance of the company's flotation.
The quality of the company's asset base and prospects was sufficient to prompt Petronas to commit around £175m to increasing its stake to 12.7%.
A specialist in investing in emerging markets, Orient Global will pay around £137.5m for a 2.6% interest.
The fundraising will help Cairn India finance its investment plans in Rajasthan and continue exploration activity in areas including India and Sri Lanka.
It was completed at a 0.46% premium to the average closing price of Cairn India shares in the two days prior to the announcement. It is subject to approval by shareholders in Cairn India.
Cairn Energy said it intended to support the proposal.
Separately, a Cairn Energy drilling campaign in Bangladesh reportedly produced mixed results. Reports in Bangladesh said an exploration well on the Hatiya structure failed to find commercial quantities of hydrocarbons but a well on the producing Sangu gas field discovered gas.
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