http://www.*.co.uk/companies/news/68559/igass-da...

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/68559/igass-dart-deal-creates-scale-to-attract-majors-says-westhouse-68559.html

"The combination of UK shale firms IGas (LON:IGAS) and Dart Energy (ASX:DTE) creates the kind of scale and momentum to attract the interest of major oil and gas companies, according to Westhouse Securities.

Analyst Mark Henderson said, in a note, that IGas’s £117mln share-based acquisition makes strategic sense.

“The enlarged IGas Energy becomes the largest UK shale acreage holder, with over 1m acres in the Bowland-Hodder basin and in southern England, over twice the exposure in acreage terms of the next biggest player, Cuadrilla Resources, and consolidates the properties that both GDF Suez and Total have farmed into,” he said.

Shortly after the deal was announced, the smaller partner in the Total deal Egdon Resources (LON;EDR) announced a US$8.5mln acquisition of onshore licenses held by Alkane Energy, which were prospective for shale gas.

Henderson believes an increased level of mergers and acquisition activity and growing political support for shale gas development suggests more progress is likely in the future, which will draw international investor interest.

“We think that the consolidation in the sector, the strong political support and the operational progress, albeit slow, are improving the outlook for shale gas development and expect international oil company and energy major interest to intensify.”

Westhouse today repeated a ‘buy’ recommendation for IGas and increased its price target to 174p from 150p."