Bracewell’s Adam Blythe discussed with Petroleum Economist the recent trends in African M&A deals.
“The recent, dominant trend for M&A in Africa has been buying mature, producing assets,” said Blythe. “Buyers have needed a flow of production to meet the debt repayments which funded the acquisition. Buying exploration acreage has not really happened in Africa for some time, except in the special case of Namibia.”
Many of the buyers for these African pure-exploration assets will be leveraged when it comes to funding these acquisitions. They are also chasing shrinking pools of capital, noted Blythe.
