Harbour Energy (LON: HBR) shares fell on Friday after BASF, its largest shareholder, sharply cut its stake in the largest block sale in the stock’s history.
Harbour said BASF Handels- und Exportgesellschaft, the German chemicals group’s trading arm, agreed to sell 53 million shares back to Harbour off-market at 266p each, for roughly $190 million, with the shares to be cancelled. Separately, BASF placed a further 80 million shares with institutional investors at the same 266p price, through bookrunner Morgan Stanley Europe SE. Together the deals covered about 133 million shares.
Harbour shares closed at 277.8p on Thursday and were trading around 270p to 271p on Friday morning, down about 2.7%, broadly in line with the roughly 4% discount at which the block was priced. About $40 million of the off-market purchase will be deducted from Harbour’s existing $250 million buyback programme announced in August.
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BASF holds roughly 24.3% of Harbour, linked to the December 2023 Wintershall Dea business combination agreement, and, according to a March report, had earlier sold a $291 million stake at 273p. Following Friday’s deals, its stake falls to approximately 16.4%, with the remaining shares locked up for 60 days, limiting the risk of further immediate selling.
The lock-up carries limited carve-outs, including a 30-day carve-out for an existing broker-managed trading plan and for potential sales to Letterone Holdings under the December 2023 agreement covering Harbour’s original acquisition of Wintershall Dea’s upstream assets. The transactions were approved by Harbour shareholders at the company’s May AGM and formalised in a directed buyback contract agreed with BASF in June.
