Private-equity backed oil and gas firm Neptune Energy plans to be ready for an initial public offering by April next year, Chief Financial Officer Armand Lumens said on Thursday. Neptune, backed by the Carlyle Group and CVC Capital partners and headed by former Centrica boss Sam Laidlaw, in 2017 acquired oil and gas assets from French Engie for $3.9 billion, including in the North Sea.

"We are planning to be ready (by April 2020), which means we are working on a number of things internally - control processes, structures to be ready - and then we will seize on an opportunity that could potentially come along in the 18-24 months that come thereafter," Lumens told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo.