DAVY VIEW

On the face of it, the deal to purchase $800m of North Sea assets makes a lot of sense in that it is in an area Premier Oil understands, ensures efficient use of tax losses and improves borrowing covenants. Headline metrics look attractive and it has achieved support for a $500m equity issue. Almost as an aside, it also announced good production numbers for 2019 and managed a farm-out of a substantial part of its Sea Lion project in the Falklands. When the dust settles, we think the judgement call will be positive and the market will like the deal and solid 2019 performance.