Shell extends Cove offer again

published 14 June 2012

Royal Dutch Shell is ploughing on with its bid for Cove Energy, extending the offer period, even though less than one-twentieth of Cove's shareholders have so far accepted the offer.

As at 13:00 on June 13th, Shell's 229p a share offer had received acceptances in respect of around 4.84% of the issued share capital of Cove. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant's offer was announced on April 24th and was backed by the Cove Energy board but since then the bid has been trumped by Thai oil firm PT Exploration and Production Public (PTTEP), which is offering 240p per share. Not surprisingly, the board of Cove is now recommending acceptance of the PTTEP offer.

The offer period has now been extended until 13:00 on June 27th.