Mining investor Zeta Resources is in the process of acquiring two different companies.
One deal is going smoothly, the other is getting competitive.
Zeta (ASX:ZER) is taking over Pan Pacific Petroleum (ASX:PPP) via scheme of arrangement, with an offer unveiled in June for 3.8c a share or one Zeta share for every 10 of the target.
The other target is New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG). Zeta launched a bid in August and is now competing with OG Oil and Gas for control of the company.
Zeta offered 72c a share for the 42 per cent of NZOG it didn’t already own, but was trumped last week when OG swooped in with a 77c a share offer.
NZOG became particularly enticing after selling its main producing fields in New Zealand, Tui and Kupe, which reaped a combined $153 million. The sale left the company cash-rich and shareholders potentially looking at a managed wind down.
Zeta is a listed resources investor, and the links between its targets and investments are myriad.
It told the market in October last year that its manager ICM owned almost half of ASX-listed Cue Resources. NZOG had launched a hostile takeover of Cue in 2015, but only took control in January this year.
Analysts are theorising that Zeta could be mulling a combined NZOG-Pan Pacific-Cue venture.
At Pan Pacific, chairman Peter Sullivan abstained from voting on the scheme of arrangement because he is also a director on the Zeta board.
And director Martin Botha runs Resolute Mining, Zeta’s largest portfolio company.
Zeta also owns 87 per cent of Bligh Resources, after a buying spree between February and July, and in January it gained control over 66 per cent of Horizon Gold.