Genel Energy, a petroleum exploration and extraction company mainly operating in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) region in northern Iraq, will be considering offers, the company's CEO Tony Hayward said.
According to the article of British daily Financial Times, Hayward, former chief executive of British Petroleum whose term oversaw the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is prepared to sell the company if a buyer approaches at the right price.
Genel Energy was founded by Turkish businessmen Mehmet Sepil and Mehmet Emin Karamehmet. Sepil is currently the president of the company while Karamehmet is a major shareholder. Karamehmet is known for his lucrative investments like the country's first and largest cell phone operator Turkcell or digital broadcasting platform Digiturk, along with many other ventures in construction and machinery under Çukurova Holding.
Along with Hayward, financier Nathaniel Rothschild and former Goldman Sachs banker Julian Metherell are among the partners of Vallares, which acquired Genel in 2011 in a $3.9 billion deal. "We see ourselves both as a potential consolidator and, given the nature of the oil industry and natural state of affairs, we also see ourselves as potentially being consolidated," Hayward said. "We have a unique set of assets - world-class assets - and a very focused business. So, looked at from the perspective of someone out to acquire high-quality assets, it would be quite attractive."
Royal Dutch Shell was named among the possible bidders for Genel.
Genel is one the largest petroleum companies in the KRG region. However, the KRG owes $378 million to Genel due to the disagreement over oil revenues between Baghdad and Irbil. The company also has operations in Africa.
