(Reuters) - Canadian oil and gas producer Husky Energy Inc said on Sunday it has made an unsolicited bid to acquired rival MEG Energy Corp in a deal valued at C$6.4 billion ($5 billion) including debt.
FILE PHOTO: Banners for the Canadian company Husky Energy are seen at a sporting event in Lake Louise, Alberta December 1, 2009. REUTERS/Andy Clark
The combined company would have total production of more than 410,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and refining and upgrading capacity of about 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), Husky said in a statement.
The offer comes as many Canadian oil producers have struggled with transportation bottlenecks as output has surged, pushing Canadian heavy crude to near-historic discounts to U.S. light crude.
Husky Chief Executive Rob Peabody told Reuters that the combination of MEG’s top-quality assets and staff with its own production and downstream network would allow MEG to circumvent some of the effects from the Canadian crude discount, and provide benefits for both sets of shareholders.
The Husky offer comes less than two months into the tenure of Derek Evans, an industry veteran who took over as chief executive of MEG in August.
“We acknowledge that we have received an unsolicited offer from Husky,” John Rogers, vice president of investor relations and external communications at MEG, said in a statement.
“The management and board will be reviewing the offer in due course and make a determining if it is in the best interest of shareholders.”
Under the terms of the proposal, each MEG shareholder will have the option to choose to receive consideration of C$11 in cash or 0.485 of a Husky share for every share held.
That offer is subject to a maximum aggregate cash consideration of C$1 billion and a maximum aggregate number of Husky shares issued of about 107 million.
“The MEG Board of Directors has refused to engage in a discussion on the merits of a transaction, giving us no option but to bring this offer directly to MEG shareholders,” Peabody said in the statement.
Husky’s offer delivers a 44 percent premium to the 10-day volume-weighted average MEG share price of C$7.62 as of Friday, and a 37 percent premium to MEG’s Friday close of C$8.03.
Goldman Sachs Canada Inc is acting as financial adviser and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is acting as lead legal adviser to Husky.
The proposal, which has been unanimously approved by Husky’s board of directors, is expected to result in C$200 million per year in near-term, realizable synergies.
(The story is refiled to correct typographical error in paragraph seven.)
Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and David French in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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