Suncor Energy’s battle for Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. is getting more crowded.
As it seeks to fend off the $4.5 billion hostile takeover, Canadian Oil Sands said it had already met with one potential rival bidder and had plans to do the same with at least three others in the coming weeks.
Royal Bank of Canada was hired by Canadian Oil Sands to find alternatives to Suncor’s hostile takeover.
Canadian Oil Sands made the disclosure in submissions to the regulator, which will hear a plea by Suncor in Calgary today to strike down a so-called poison pill adopted by Canadian Oil Sands last month.
The shareholders rights plan would give it 120 days to weigh other offers, doubling the duration of the rights plan it had in place when Suncor made an offer that expires Dec. 4.
Suncor, Canada’s largest oil producer by market value, is seeking to take advantage of oil’s slump to expand.
Canadian Oil Sands is the largest owner of the Syncrude mining project in northern Alberta. Both companies are cutting costs after crude tumbled about 60 percent since the middle of 2014.
Imperial Oil Ltd., which is the second-biggest owner in the Syncrude partnership, has been named as a potential bidder for Canadian Oil Sands.
Canadian pension funds, which have been active in the oil patch this year, may also be interested, Randy Ollenberger, a Calgary-based analyst with the Bank of Montreal, said in an e-mail.
A representative for Canadian Oil Sands declined to comment. A spokesman for Imperial was not immediately available for comment.
“We will argue the merits of our position tomorrow at the Alberta Securities Commission hearing as scheduled,” Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman for Suncor, said.