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By Sarah Young
LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Energy-focused private equityfirm Riverstone Holdings is to list a new energy vehicle on theLondon Stock Exchange in an initial public offering that couldraise up to 1.5 billion pounds ($2.4 billion).
The new company, Riverstone Energy Limited (REL), said onTuesday it had already secured 550 million pounds worth ofcommitments. It plans to invest in energy companies and assetsworldwide, focusing on exploration and production of oil andgas, and their storage and transportation.
It has a heavyweight board, counting the former chairman ofFTSE 100 oil and gas firm BG Robert Wilson as itschairman, and former BP Chief Executive John Browne as adirector.
Wilson said REL would seek to raise up to 1.5 billion poundsfrom other institutional investors before the shares areadmitted to London's main market on Oct. 29.
The minimum size of the share sale would be 670 millionpounds, he added.
REL said U.S.-headquartered Riverstone would act as itsinvestment manager and the two would co-invest on deals.
Europe has seen a pick-up in initial public offerings (IPOs)this year as market confidence has improved, with London a bigdriver of activity. As of Sept. 19, IPOs by British companieshad raised $3.9 bln in 2013, a 201 percent increase on the sameperiod in 2012.
Should it beat its minimum target size, REL could enter theFTSE 250 index of Britain's midcap companies, Wilsonsaid.
The 550 million pounds already committed is comprised of 50million pounds from Riverstone as well as 500 million poundsfrom five so-called cornerstone investors.
Those five investors are a unit of the Alaska Permanent FundCorporation; Texas-based Hunt Oil Company; KFI, a privateinvestment vehicle of Louis Bacon, founder of Moore CapitalManagement; Casita LP; and the McNair Group.
REL said the 550 million pounds bought 55 million shares at10 pounds a share. The number of shares issued in total and theprice would be determined by demand, a spokesman said.
Riverstone has featured in the British press in recentmonths because it is a part-owner of Cuadrilla, a company whoseexploration for shale gas in southern England has been thesubject of protests.
REL will aim to invest primarily in privately-ownedcompanies and also assets, said Wilson, highlighting thenumerous recent disposals by oil majors such as BP and Total as potential opportunities.
"Some of those assets which may be relatively marginal to asuper major, can actually be good opportunities for businesseslike a Riverstone and REL," he said.
Riverstone, for example, bought U.S. oil firm Apache's Gulfof Mexico shelf assets for $3.75 billion in July.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Cazenove, Deutsche Bank, MorganStanley are acting as joint bookrunners while Berenberg andTudor, Pickering, Holt & Co were co-lead managers.
