UK-based Max Petroleum sold a 51 percent stake to AGR Energy, an investment vehicle owned by the Assaubayev family.
The deal is worth approximately US$62.5 million (£37.1 million), the company said Monday.
Max is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused on Kazakhstan.
AGR paid 1.64 per share, a 33 percent premium compared to closing market price on August 1.
The size of the purchase would usually trigger Rule 9 of the UK’s takeover code, requiring AGR to make a general offer to acquire the shares held by other shareholders.
Max will asks its shareholders to waive Rule 9 with a resolution at the next stockholder meeting, the company said.
The deal must also be approved by regulators in Kazakhstan.
If the purchase is approved, AGR will nominate two directors to the company’s board.
The nominees are expected to be Aidar Assaubayev and Kanat Assaubayev.’
Aidar Assaubayev currently serves as a non-executive director at the Kazakhstan mining and development company Kremin Resources.
Kanat Assaubayev is Kremin’s chairman of the board.
The partnership will support Max’s development of its post-salt fields and its plans to resume exploration of pre-salt prospects on its block A and E licenses in western Kazakhstan.
“The Max platform has demonstrated its operational capability in Kazakhstan and this investment provides us with the strong financial foundation we need to support that platform,” Max CEO Robert B. Holland III said.
