It has now been more than 520 market days since shares in the £345mn Savannah Energy (SAVE) last traded publicly. Aside from the odd block of stock changing hands off-market, regular punters have been locked out of one of Aim’s largest stocks by market capitalisation for 25 months and counting.
The suspension began in December 2022, when the group entered a share purchase agreement to acquire Petronas’ oil and gas business in South Sudan for $1.25bn. By August, that deal had fallen through, though Savannah is still pursuing an “alternative transaction”, despite a deteriorating situation in the landlocked country, exacerbated by the spillover from a hideous civil war in Sudan that has hampered Petronas’ ability to transport crude oil northward to the Red Sea.
Until Savannah walks away or publishes an admission document, this is shareholders’ lot. Ironically, this is for their own protection. Because there is insufficient available information about a possible deal, and its financial implications for the group, there is too much uncertainty for an orderly market.