National Company KazMunaiGas has sweetened its offer to buy out minority shareholders in its London-listed subsidiary after talks with China’s sovereign wealth fund, according to the Kazakh state oil company’s chairman.
KazMunaiGas, which is 100 per cent owned by the Kazakh state, last month launched an attempt to tighten control over KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, or KMG EP, its UK-listed subsidiary, and offered to buy out its minority shareholders.
NC KMG’s proposals to reform its relationship with KMG EP, Kazakhstan’s third-largest oil producer, have run into stiff opposition from the London-listed unit’s independent directors. They said the changes would “severely undermine the corporate governance of the company” and threatened to resign.