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Indian Oil Corp wants to buy Niko Resources
FE Report
3/10/2006
State-owned Indian Oil Corp says it wants to buy Canada's Niko Resources Ltd.
Talk of Indian Oil's interest in Niko has swirled for several months. Last December, Niko said it had received a "preliminary expression of interest" from Indian Oil, but the expression was "not sufficiently clear and certain" for evaluation. Niko therefore told the Indian Oil that it was "unacceptable."
Sarthak Behuria, chairman of Indian Oil, told reporters at a conference in New Delhi that his company was in talks with Niko and Maurel & Prom SA of France, according to an Indian media report.
Niko's market capitalisation is about $2.0 billion.
"No time frame has been set," Behuria said, in terms of potentially closing one or both deals.
It is the second time in about a month that Behuria has spoken publicly about Indian Oil's interest in Niko and Maurel & Prom. In early February, he said Indian Oil had held talks with both about buying majority stakes in the firms.
In late January, Maurel & Prom said a media report that Indian Oil has made a bid for the company was "unfounded." Maurel & Prom said it had received expressions of interest from potential buyers but noted it was not in exclusive talks.
Wednesday, Niko said it had no response to the latest statement from Indian Oil's chairman.
Calgary-based Niko produces natural gas in India and Bangladesh and its key asset is a 10 per cent stake in an offshore Indian block known as D6.
Another issue Niko is dealing with is in Bangladesh. The country and the company are fighting over how much Niko's natural gas should be sold for and the country is also upset with Niko over two blowouts at the Chhatak gas field.
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