LONDON, July 2, 2026, 18:01 BST
- Deltic last appeared at 7.00p in late post-close prints, under the 7.7p cash bid from NEO NEXT+.
- Peel Hunt bought 3,615 Deltic shares at 6.50p and sold 87 at 7.50p on July 1, according to a July 2 Takeover Code filing.
- Investors gave the plan a green light last week, but the deal still needs sign-off from the North Sea Transition Authority before it closes.
Deltic Energy Plc (LON:DELT) keeps acting more like a deal arb play than an explorer. The shares remain under the cash offer price, despite shareholders approving the NEO NEXT+ Energy Upstream UK Limited buyout.
Deltic closed flat at 7.00p in London, according to delayed screens, putting the AIM-listed North Sea investor’s market cap at about 6.5 million pounds. NEO NEXT+ will buy Deltic for 7.7p a share in cash, putting the offer’s diluted value near 7.2 million pounds.
Spread tells the story, not just the last price. Peel Hunt filed its latest Form 8.5 on Thursday, showing it bought 3,615 shares at 6.50 GBx and sold 87 shares at 7.50 GBx on July 1. That’s very low volume, but it sets out the real range for investors looking to get in or out.
The gap on the deal swings a lot depending on the execution price, based on Deltic’s 93,096,600 shares outstanding and the 7.7p cash offer, according to .
| Reference price | Implied equity value | Gross upside to 7.7p | Cash gap to offer value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.50p bid, Peel Hunt buy level | £6.05 mln | 18.5% | £1.12 mln |
| 7.00p late trade per ADVFN/Investors Chronicle | £6.52 mln | 10.0% | £0.65 mln |
| 7.50p offer, Peel Hunt sell level | £6.98 mln | 2.7% | £0.19 mln |
That’s key because someone buying at 7.50p is really only going after 0.20p per share above the agreed cash deal, while anyone selling at 6.50p is losing out on 1.20p. The FTSE AIM All-Share added 0.18% to 777.45 on Thursday, but Deltic’s shares now move more with deal closing steps than with the index.
Scheme shareholders already voted. On June 24, 99.08% of votes at the court meeting backed the scheme, covering 36,912,472 shares. At the general meeting, 98.91% supported the special resolution to move the scheme ahead.
| Deal step | Status |
|---|---|
| Shareholder court-meeting vote | Cleared, 99.08% of scheme shares backed the deal |
| General-meeting special resolution | Approved, 98.91% for |
| NSTA change-of-control approval | Still pending; notice sent May 7 |
| Expected effective date | Targeting before end-Q3 2026, if other steps go through |
| Long stop date | Dec. 31, 2026 |
Deltic said it still needs the NSTA to sign off, plus a court sanction and the order delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The timeline puts trading suspended on AIM at 7:30 a.m. the first business day after the scheme takes effect. Cancellation of AIM admission is set for 7:00 a.m. two business days after.
Deltic CEO Andrew Nunn said the offer was the “best value and certainty” for shareholders at the May deal announcement. NEO NEXT+ chairman John Knight said Deltic’s portfolio brings “attractive future development potential” to the buyer’s UK North Sea assets. Investegate
The board’s push shows up on the balance sheet. Deltic closed 2025 holding 1.65 million pounds in cash, with a 2.9 million pound NEO NEXT+ bridge loan fully drawn at 10% interest. The company said it didn’t have enough liquidity for deferred obligations without extra funding if the takeover failed.
The obligations cover amounts owed to Shell U.K. Limited, a subsidiary of Shell plc (LON:SHEL), related to the Selene licence. That licence was last extended to Aug. 27, 2026. There’s also 0.9 million pounds due under a Pensacola deferred repayment deal now with Adura. Deltic said if the deal doesn’t close before the end of 2026, it may be in an “extremely challenging financial position” and could go into administration. Investegate
The asset angle isn’t gone, but the market has stopped pricing Deltic as a pure funding play. The company’s latest results showed Selene seismic reprocessing should wrap in the third quarter of 2026. Blackadder 3D seismic reprocessing was set to kick off in the second quarter and is expected to run for six to seven months.
