Ithaca Energy combines with Eni's North Sea business

MILAN (Reuters) -Ithaca Energy completed a 754 million pound ($993 million) deal to buy nearly all of Eni's UK oil and gas producing assets, it said on Thursday, an all-share transaction to create one of the biggest independent energy companies in the North Sea.

Under the deal announced in April, Italy's Eni got a stake of around 38.7% in North Sea-focused Ithaca Energy and has appointed Eni UK former Managing Director, Luciano Vasques, as the CEO of the combined group.

The move is part of Eni's so-called 'satellite' strategy through which it has been spinning off businesses focused on specific geographical areas in order to attract investors interested in those regions.

Under the same strategy, Eni has created Azule Energy, a joint venture with BP focused on Angola, and Norway oil and gas company Vaar Energi with a private equity firm.

Ithaca is buying all of Eni's oil and gas producing assets in Britain, excluding its East Irish Sea assets and its carbon capture and storage (CCUS) activities.

Tel Aviv-listed Delek Group which until recently owned an 82.70% stake in Ithaca according to LSEG data, now holds 50.7% with the completion of the deal.

Eni is "a fully committed, long-term and supportive shareholder of Ithaca", it said in a statement.

($1 = 0.7598 pounds)

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Francesca Landini in Milan and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; editing by Gavin Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)