Dana Petroleum and Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) were reported to be in talks yesterday over the latter’s indicative £18-a-share offer for the Aberdeen-based company.
The Scottish company declined to comment, however, and KNOC could not be contacted.
Dana is expected to say something “if and when it believes the time is appropriate”.
KNOC was thought to be hoping to convince the Dana board to recommend its offer, which values Dana at about £1.7billion and has been declared by City analysts to be a very full offer and unlikely to be raised. Dana’s stance so far has been that the offer does not include fair value for its exploration assets and reflects only its production.
KNOC first showed interest in tabling a bid for Dana early last month, when it said it was in “very preliminary” talks about a possible cash offer.
Dana subsequently said publicly that it would have to be assured cash was in place to fund a deal and that it did not believe the Korean state-owned company had the necessary funds.
It then emerged at the end of July that KNOC was finalising loans required to submit a formal £1.7billion bid for Aberdeen-based oil and gas operator Dana Petroleum.
The loans, understood to be from a group of mostly Asian banks, are required before KNOC can make a firm offer under UK takeover law.
Dana has said KNOC must give assurances that funds are in place before due diligence can proceed, although it has also been holding out for a higher offer.
The Aberdeen-based company has been the subject of takeover speculation for about two years, with speculation linking it with possible bidders including RWE of Germany, France’s GDF Suez, and Austria’s OMV.
Dana has never commented except to say it does not respond to market speculation.
Its shares closed yesterday at £17.08, valuing the company at £1.58billion.
KNOC has operations worldwide including one interest in the UK, where it has a 15% stake in Chevron’s 85%-owned and operated Captain oil field. Dana has a portfolio of assets throughout Europe and Africa.