Ithaca plans London float ‘in weeks’

NORTH Sea oil giant Ithaca Energy plans to join the London Stock Exchange ‘within weeks’, an industry source has told The Mail on Sunday.

The multi-billion pound listing is expected in October and investment bank JPMorgan has been hired to work on the float, the source said.

The fifth-largest North Sea producer is owned by Israeli energy and infrastructure group Delek. Ithaca bought Siccar Point Energy in a £1.1billion deal in April this year – which gives it a 70 per cent stake in the Cambo project, the second-largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea.

In August, Ithaca said profits rose 570 per cent to £1.45billion in the first half of the year. This was boosted by a surge in energy prices. On average it produced 67,000 barrels of oil a day during the period.

Ithaca was founded in Canada in 2004 and has operated in the UK since 2008. It traded on the junior AIM market and the Toronto Stock Exchange before being bought by Delek in 2017. Delek has said it is looking to spin Ithaca off this year.

Ithaca and JP Morgan declined to comment.