Abu Dhabi state oil company buys out Spanish Cepsa

Cepsa's Madrid headquarters

SPAIN (Agencies) Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company, (IPIC) has reached an agreement with French oil company Total to buy the latter's 48.83% of Cepsa for €3,724 millions. The Arab company already controlled 47.06% of the Spanish company. The deal obliges IPIC to launch a Public Offering (Oferta Pública de Adquisición in Spanish, usually simply opa), according to the National Commission of Securities Market. IPIC paid €28.5 per share, of which €28 comes from IPIC and the remaining €0.50 from dividends by Cepsa. The Arab company paid about 25% above Cepsa's market price at closing yesterday. (Cepsa owns and runs the refinery at San Roque).