A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S has completed the sale of its oil and gas unit Mærsk Olie og Gas A/S to French oil company Total SA in a share and debt transaction.
The Danish conglomerate said it received 97.5 million shares of Total, equalling $5.6 billion as consideration for the transaction as of March 7. Total also assumed $2.5 billion of short-term Maersk Oil and Gas' debt that will be paid to A.P. Møller - Maersk after closing.
Total valued its shares at $4.95 billion, based on average share price of the 20 business days before the deal was signed in August 2017.
A.P. Møller - Maersk said it will use the proceeds to reduce debt. It plans to return "a material portion" of the value received in stock to its shareholders during 2018 and 2019 in the form of extraordinary dividends, share buybacks and/or distribution of Total shares.
The transaction will amount to an accounting gain of $2.6 billion for A.P. Møller - Maersk, which said the transaction is a significant step in its strategy to separate its oil and oil-related activities and focus on container shipping, ports and logistics.
Total said the deal makes it the second-largest operator in the North Sea, with an output of 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020. The transaction adds production of about 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2018, ramping up to more than 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the early 2020s.
Total expects the acquisition to result in synergies of more than $400 million per year.
