WASHINGTON, DC (CI MENA) – (Update on October 17, 2018 to add details on Cassa Depositi e Presitit) — Total SA (NYSE:TOT) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne did not rule out a merger with Italian listed oil giant ENI (NYSE:E) and said he is against state ownership of European oil and gas group.
[Total Chairman and Chief Executive filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI MENA using CI Glass answering question on a potential merger with ENI at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. May 17, 2018]
When asked by Capitol Intelligence if Total is eyeing a merger with ENI considering its overlapping industrial front print, Total CEO Pouyanne responded: “Merging today? I do not think I will answer. I already answered that a few months ago that I do not want (the) state(s) to be among the shareholders.”
In exclusive comments to Capitol Intellgence at the World Gas Congress in Washington, DC, ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi said he had no comment on a possible merger with Total.
[ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI MENA using CI Glass on potential merger with Total SA at World Gas Congress in Washington, DC. June 26, 2018]
In an earlier statement to Capitol Intelligence asking if ENI could acquire Texas-based Andarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) or merge with San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Descalzi said ENI is happy “with its current size.”
The new populist government between the 5 Star Movement (M5S) and the Northern League (Lega) now makes a meger between Total and ENI more likely than with a traditional centre-right or centre-left government, a former Italian energy minister said.
“It seems neither Lugi d Maio [M5S Deputy Prime] or [Lega Deputy Prime Minister Matteo] Salvini care if ENI is merged with Total or not. Di Maio and Salvini may decide the funds from a Total/ENI merger can pay for the Lega’s flat tax and M5S minimum income,” the minsiter said.
France’s Total has been seeking a merger with ENI for decades but has always been rebuffed through the Italian government use of its golden share and its status as a national champion in the oil and gas business.
The Italian state has increasingly decreased it direct role in ENI over the years. One of the most significant actions was the transfer of a 25.76% stake in the company to Italy’s state controlled investment fund, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), leaving the Italian Treasury with only a 4.34% holding.
The recent leadership changes at CDP and the new Italian goverment has left ENI watchers speculating that the government controlled by Di Maio and Salvini could use a Total/ENI merger as means to generate financial resources to finance the government’s proposed corporate tax cut and “minimum income guarantee” program.
However, the lack of an Italian government and a weakened executive board at ENI following a series of FCPA related corruption scandals involving its former CEO, Paolo Scaroni, has made ENI vulnerable to a “merger of equals” with Total.
The combination of ENI and Total would bring considerable cost savings to both companies and at the same time consolidate their considerable upstream operations in strategic markets such as Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Iran-Iraq, Libya-Tunisia and of course Algeria.
[ExxonMobil Chairman CEO Darren Woods, China National Petroleum Company Chairman Wang Yilin and ENI SpA Claudio DesCalzi filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI MENA using CI Gass holding trilateral meeting during World Gas Conference in Washington, DC. June 26, 2018]
In Mozambique, ENI is in a three way production sharing agreement with US oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and China’s China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).
In fact, Decalzi, Exxon CEO Darren Woods and CNPC Chairman Wang Yilin held what could only be described a high-level public “close door meeting” to discuss Mozambique on June 26, 2018 during the World Gas Conference in Washington, DC.
Former ENI CEO Paolo Scaroni had been charged by Milan prosecuting magistrates for allegations that ENI’s listed oil services unit SAIPEM paid Algerian public officials including than Algeria’s Energy Minister and Sonatrach chairman Chabib Khelil a bribe of EUR 197m to secure a USD 11bn contract for the company.
[Sonatrach CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI MENA using CI Glass at World Gass ongress in Washington, DC. June 26, 2018]
While a Milanese court found Scaroni not guilty of the Algerian bribery charges, Scaroni remains a target of a US Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) investigation by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities & Exchange Commission in connection with a Algerian bribery scandal, judicial sources said.
“The Milan court ordered EUR 197m to be seized for SAIPEM and convicted former SAIPEM CEO Pietro Tali to a prison sentence of 4 years and nine months,” a Washington, DC lawyer specializing in FCPA said, adding. “Under US FCPA, it is the CEO who is ulitmately responsible for any corruption of foreign officials.”
By PK Semler in Washington DC. For more information, please call +1-202-549-3399 or email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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