Hayward makes return to the oil business

Vallares, an investment vehicle set up by Hayward, financier Nat Rothschild and banker Julian Metherell, is buying Genel in a deal that exposes investors to political uncertainty over internal Iraqi politics and corporate governance concerns.

The enlarged group – which will likely be big enough to enter the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip London-listed companies – will be known as Genel Energy Plc and Genel’s existing shareholders will own half of it, Vallares said.

Kurdistan has enjoyed a surge of investment in the past year as relations between its regional government and Iraq’s national government in Baghdad improved. That has seen the central government lifting a bar on paying companies in Kurdistan for oil exported from the region.

Mehmet Karamehmet, one of Turkey’s richest men, owns 56 per cent of Genel.