THE Papua New Guinea government is thought to be seeking finance to regain its holding in Oil Search.
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| Image courtesy of Oil Search. |
Lenders such as Citigroup and Barclays Plc are among the banks seeking to provide more than A$1.5 billion (K3.38 billion) in financing to the PNG government.
The banks have reportedly been presenting options to the PNG government on how to fund the repurchase of exchangeable bonds backed by its Oil Search stake it sold in 2008.
The National newspaper reported that PNG was close to picking a bank.
PNG raised $A1.68 billion (K3.83 billion) from International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), an Abu Dhabi-owned investment fund, through the sale of bonds that could be exchanged for its 14.7% stake in Oil Search.
The proceeds were used to finance the government’s share of a liquefied natural gas project being developed by ExxonMobil.
Source: pngindustrynews.net