M&As this week: General Electric, HollyFrontier, Predator Blockchain Capital

US-based multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) plans to divest a 12% stake in oilfield services subsidiary Baker Hughes (BHGE) for $4bn.

GE will sell a total of 166 million shares of BHGE, of which 101 million will be offered through a secondary offering. The remaining 65 million shares will be repurchased by BHGE.

GE owns a 62.5% interest in BHGE, which will reduce to 50% following the completion of the divestment.

The transaction will generate funds to reduce debt and enable GE to focus on its new plans for its aviation, power, and renewable energy businesses.

A subsidiary of Holly Frontier Corporation has signed a $655m agreement for the acquisition of Sonneborn US Holdings and Sonneborn Cooperatief, together named Sonneborn.

The acquisition is scheduled for completion by the end of 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.

Based in the US, Holly Frontier is a petroleum refiner and petroleum products distributor.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Holly Frontier’s processing and blending capabilities in North America and Europe markets. It will also establish the company as a leading provider of speciality products.

Goldman Sachs acted as the financial adviser for Holly Frontier for the transaction.

Predator Blockchain Capital has signed an amended letter of intent (LoI) with Highwood Oil Company to acquire all the issued and outstanding securities of the latter.

The amended agreement includes the consolidation of ten million shares of Predator in a 1:53 ratio. Shareholders of Highwood will be issued 5.7 million post-consolidation common shares priced at $9 a share at a total cost of $51.69m.

Following the completion of the acquisition, approximately 5.93 million post-consolidation common shares are expected to be issued.

Both based in Canada, Predator Blockchain Company is a capital pool company, while Highwood Oil Company is an oil and gas exploration and production firm.