Ithaca Energy in play

Ithaca Energy, the Canadian oil and gas firm, has received a bid approach and discussions are taking place which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the issued share capital of the company. The company holds a number of assets in the UK-owned part of the North Sea, including the Athena field, in which it has a 22.5% stake and where it is the operator. The company said back on December 9th that progress on the field had been delayed by problems with a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. That initially set the share price back, but the stock has been rising steadily since mid-December, advancing from 120p to 142.75p on the last trading day before confirmation of the bid approach. News of the bid talks sent the shares surging to 178.32p.AB