takeover

After being outbid twice in its hostile takeover battle for the shares of Canada Southern Petroleum, Petro Canada said Thursday that it had no intention of raising its offer for a third time. White knight Canadian Oil Sands bested Petro-Canada’s latest $13/share offer by a dime on Wednesday, retaining the favor of the Canada Southern board.

Firm in its rejection of unsolicited takeover moves by a fellow merchant power generator, Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy, Inc. late last Monday asked Delaware’s Chancery Court to dismiss a complaint filed last month by Mirant Corp, the would-be acquirer of NRG. Mirant sued over NRG’s staunch rejection of its proposed buyout offer as being undervalued and offering a weak stock.

Subsea contractor Cal Dive International Inc. on Monday announced the acquisition of Remington Oil and Gas Corp., long considered a takeover target, in a deal valued at about $1.4 billion. Cal Dive, based in Houston, said it will pay the Dallas-based exploration and production (E&P) independent a premium of more than 22% to build its presence in the Gulf of Mexico and to retain key employees.

Subsea contractor Cal Dive International Inc. last week said it will buy Remington Oil and Gas Corp., long considered a takeover target, in a deal valued at about $1.4 billion. Cal Dive, based in Houston, is paying the Dallas-based independent a premium of more than 22% to build its presence in the Gulf of Mexico and to retain key employees.

Two published reports Friday indicated that the third largest oil and natural gas company in China was considering a takeover bid to acquire all or part of Unocal Corp. Both the Wall Street Journal and London’s Financial Times said that China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) was considering making a bid of more than $13 billion for the El Segundo, CA-based company. Unocal is ranked as the ninth largest U.S. energy company in terms of reserves. According to sources, the state-owned CNOOC has asked financiers to study taking over the entire company and then selling the U.S. assets. The Journal cited unnamed sources and called CNOOC’s interest “highly preliminary.” Unocal had no comment on the reports.

Houston-based Plains Resources Inc., which already has agreed to a merger with a subsidiary of private equity firm Vulcan Capital, said Friday that a rating by Moody’s Investors Service indicates that an offer it initially turned down by Leucadia National Corp. is “likely to result in a superior proposal.” Plains’ board of directors had agreed to Vulcan’s bid earlier this year (see Daily GPI, March 2).

El Paso Corp.’s top individual shareholder, Selim K. Zilkha, who engineered a failed takeover attempt of the board of directors last year, reportedly has sold his stock in the company.

Calgary independent CanScot Resources Ltd., which agreed in early August to a takeover by crosstown independent APF Energy Inc., reported record third quarter earnings and income on Friday, boosted by its coalbed methane (CBM) production in North America.

Talking to local news media in the state, a Nevada state senator earlier this week took on the case of Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources and one of its two electric utilities, Nevada Power Co., which is the target of a local ballot measure on public power and a unsolicited bid by a local public-sector water agency that counts as one of its largest customers.