Canada’s oilfield services provider Ensign Energy Services Inc (ESI.TO) said on Tuesday about 56 percent of Trinidad Drilling Ltd’s (TDG.TO) shares have been tendered in its hostile offer, with rival bidder Precision Drilling Corp (PD.TO) walking away.
Precision and Trinidad’s shares both closed up more than 2.5 percent, while Ensign ended down 8.8 percent.
Ensign said the tendered shares helped meet the statutory minimum condition for its C$947-million hostile offer. The company now owned 66.18 percent of Trinidad shares, including stock in the company it previously owned.
Precision said on Tuesday it was awaiting payment of the termination fee of $20,000,000, based on its agreement with Trinidad.
The rival bids underscored how oilfield service providers are looking to cushion the impact of Canadian oil producers tapping the brakes on spending, as pipeline bottlenecks result in wide discounts for Western Canada Select heavy crude to U.S. benchmark crude CLc1.
Ensign decided to launch the bid in August after Trinidad completed a strategic review it began in February, while North American drilling contractor Precision in October offered a deal valued at C$1.03 billion.
Trinidad’s board had rejected the C$1.68 per share all-cash bid from Ensign and instead urged shareholders to accept an all-stock offer from Precision.
Source: Reuters.com