Heritage Oil shares halted as it admits to takeover talks

UK-BASED oil explorer Heritage Oil  is in early-stage merger talks, it said yesterday, after its shares were suspended.

The group, which made a significant oil find in Uganda earlier this year and has potential for development in a Kurdish region of Iraq, said it was in talks with a third party about a possible reverse takeover.

Heritage, which moved its main listing to London last March, has a market capitalsiation of around £1.5bn.

The group was founded by Tony Buckingham, who now has a shareholding of around 33 per cent.

JPMorgan Cazenove’s Ian Hannam, the doyen of the resources sector in the City, is advising the company. Heritage held abortive talks last September with an unidentified third party over the sale of  assets.

Analysts said the potential suitor was likely to be a private company, probably from overseas.