Statoil retail arm IPO seen worth upto $844m

Norwegian oil and gas producer Statoil hopes to raise upto 4.9 billion crowns ($844 million) from the part flotation of its filling station network, joining an industry trend to focus on more lucrative upstream operations.

Statoil said on Thursday it will sell up to 40 per cent, or up to 120 million shares in Statoil Fuel & Retail (SFR), which has operations in Scandinavia and central and eastern Europe.

BP sold its U.S. retail network in 2007 and Exxon Mobil began doing the same a year later. Shell has also agreed to sell retail networks in some countries.

"This transaction provides SFR with a strong platform for further growth and development, taking into account its leadership positions in its key markets, its attractive asset base and its strong brand," chief executive Helge Lund said.

Bookbuilding for the IPO starts on October 8 and the pricing of the transaction was expected around October 21. SFR will list on the Oslo bourse around October 22, Statoil said.

The shares will be offered for sale at a price between 32 and 41 crowns per share, meaning the IPO is expected to raise between 3.84-4.92bn crowns excluding the overallotment option of up to 15 per cent of the base deal.

In the retail offering, shares offered to the public in Norway are subject to a lower limit per application of 10,000 crowns and an upper limit of 2.5 million crowns for each investor.

Statoil said it will be the majority shareholder of SFR at the time of the IPO and listing.

"The size and time horizon of Statoil's future ownership in SFR will be tailored to support and develop company value both for SFR and for Statoil," Statoil said in a statement.

ABG Sundal Collier and Citigroup Global Markets are acting as joint global co-ordinators and, together with BofA Merrill Lynch as joint book-runners. Nordea Markets is acting as senior lead manager and retail coordinator, while Barclays Capital and Carnegie are co-lead managers.

Rothschild and Arctic Securities are financial advisers to Statoil.