White & Case LLP has advised Nostrum Oil & Gas plc on its successful admission to the premium listing segment of the Official List and to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

Nostrum Oil & Gas, an independent oil & gas exploration and production business with assets in Kazakhstan, previously had a listing of global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange. Following a reorganisation of its business by way of a scheme of reorganisation of Nostrum Oil & Gas LP, Nostrum Oil & Gas plc became the new holding company of the business.

Nostrum Oil & Gas plc, a premium listed company with a market capitalisation of US$2.35 billion, is also eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 index. The company believes that the move to a premium listing is a natural evolution as it continues to develop its operations, benefitting shareholders and supporting its growth strategy by broadening its investor base and increasing the liquidity of its securities.

The scheme of reorganisation required Nostrum Oil & Gas to purchase the existing business in cash using a one-day bank facility provided by VTB Capital plc. Deutsche Bank is acting as sponsor to Nostrum Oil & Gas on the premium listing. White & Case has also advised Nostrum Oil & Gas plc on its admission to listing on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and the delisting of the global depository receipts of Nostrum Oil & Gas LP from the Standard segment of the London Stock Exchange.

London-based White & Case partner Allan Taylor, who led the cross-border team which advised Nostrum Oil & Gas, said: “We are very pleased to have played a role in ensuring Nostrum Oil & Gas made the strategically pivotal step to a premium listing successfully. White & Case was able to field a cross-border, cross-practice team of lawyers able to navigate the corporate, capital markets and banking complexities of the transaction efficiently and effectively.

"It's especially pleasing to have worked with Nostrum Oil & Gas on both its initial public offering and listing of global depositary receipts in 2008 – the first listing in London of global depositary receipts of a limited partnership – as well as the successful transition to a premium listing six years later. We look forward to continuing to work closely with the team in future."

The White & Case team which advised Nostrum Oil & Gas was led by London-based partner Allan Taylor and included partners Melissa Butler, Doron Loewinger, Pieta Menon, Nicholas Greenacre, Stephen Ravenscroft, Jacqueline Evans (all London) and Maxim Telemtayev (Astana & Almaty), local partner Pavel Kornilov (Astana), counsels Euan Fergusson, Prabhu Narasimhan (both London), Kairat Baizakov and Marat Ibragimov (both Almaty) and associates Emer Delaney, Christian Holmberg, Adnan Chida, Jasmine Grewal, Daniella Ebrahimoff, Dave Gossen, Joshua van der Ploeg, James Clarke, James Greene, Glenn Weston, Laura Hoyland, Johanna Johnson, James Hardy, Sally Koo (all London), Timur Odilov, Semion Issyk, Arman Bigazin, Zarina Baikenzhina (all Astana), Yernur Toizhanov and Yevgeniy Ibragimov (both Almaty).