Ithaca Energy to pay $200m special dividend after Eni UK merger

The North Sea oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy is to pay a $200 million special dividend.
The London-listed firm said it was on course to return $500 million to shareholders for its 2024 financial year, having already paid a $100 million dividend.
Ithaca was updating the market on third-quarter trading following its acquisition of most of Eni’s UK assets. The all-share deal with the Italian group was valued at more than $930 million.
It was formally completed at the start of October but its economic impact has been backdated to the start of July. Yaniv Friedman, Ithaca’s executive chairman, said the combination had “created a platform for growth” even with the UK’s difficult fiscal regime.
He highlighted the potential for further deals in the North Sea and internationally and said: “We are UK focused and we definitely see us continuing to invest in the UK. We do see opportunities and believe we can be a lead consolidator in this market. We are definitely looking at opportunities internationally. We are not going to be operating in 50 countries but we are going to choose assets very carefully.”
Ithaca also reaffirmed guidance that it hopes a further $500 million of dividends can be paid in 2025.
Underlying results for the first nine months of this year for Ithaca’s assets alone showed production equivalent to 52,501 barrels of oil a day, down from 71,048 in 2023.
The drop was attributed to operational issues across assets and infrastructure which Ithaca has an interest in but does not run. Net income in the period was at $134.7 million, compared to $238.5 million.
Friedman said production across the enlarged group, which has interests in more than 30 producing assets, had reached more than 120,000 barrels a day in the fourth quarter.
Luciano Vasques, chief executive, who joined from Eni UK, said work on the Rosebank project located northwest of Shetland was still progressing even though a legal challenge has been lodged at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. He said: “We acknowledge the judicial review is there but we do not expect an outcome of that until 2025.”
Rosebank, where Equinor is operator and Ithaca the minority partner, has the potential to produce first oil in 2026 or 2027 depending on how it moves forward.
Vasques said there continued to be dialogue with the UK government and the North Sea Transition Authority, the industry regulator, around the fiscal regime and energy profit levy.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said Ithaca was now “a substantially larger and financially stronger business with significant financing capacity to fund future growth”.
Shares closed up 9.2 per cent at 109p.