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North Sea oil group Dana Petroleum today bought £240million of assets which it says makes it more valuable than last week's £1.87 billion hostile takeover bid from Korea National Oil Corp.
Dana said the deal and an independent valuation of its existing assets meant that it is worth between 2270p and 2465p a share compared with the Korean offer of only 1800p a share. But with the bidder already sitting on acceptances accounting for 49% of Dana's equity, analysts are convinced the company will fall and probably without too much of a hike in the offer.
Dana shares fell 2p to 1806p which is still just enough above the bid price to prevent the Koreans buying shares in the market.
"This whole issue is around value and value for all our shareholders and that's the only goal of the Dana management team," said Dana chief executive Tom Cross.
He declined to say what level of offer would be acceptable and would not comment on whether any other potential bidders had emerged.
Dana is paying £240 million to Suncor for a batch of North Sea assets which it said are worth £368 million.
But a spokesman for the Koreans said: "We have seen no new material information today and see no reason to change our current position."
