Sunoma CEO says Orbit offer is fair
Thursday November 27, 1:01 pm Eastern Time
CALGARY, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Sunoma Energy Corp Chief Executive Paul MacDermott said on Thursday he believed his company's C$73 million hostile takeover offer for Orbit Oil & Gas Ltd was fair, despite Orbit's confidence of a higher bid.
''This is not a negotiating process. We worked very hard on this project for quite some time and we think the offer is very fair and reasonable,'' MacDermott told Reuters. ''We're committed to getting it done.''
He declined to say if the C$1.70 a share cash offer announced today was the highest Sunoma would bid for Orbit.
Sunoma is a private company owned by MacDermott and several U.S. energy funds organized by Fort Worth, Texas-based Natural Gas Partners Group.
Orbit, with operations in western Canada and Texas, has about C$11 million in long-term debt as well as preferred shares.
The offer would be conditional on 50.1 percent of Orbit shares, other than the 6.9 percent held by Sunoma, being tendered to the bid.
Orbit Chief Executive Robert Lamond, who holds 21 percent of his company's stock directly and indirectly, said on Thursday he believed the Sunoma offer was too low and expressed confidence that a higher bid was in the offing.
MacDermott said that ''(Orbit) makes very good strategic and financial sense for our company. It furthers the growth of the company and gives value to the shareholders of Orbit.''
He said the offer represented a large premium to Orbit's share price over the past three years.
Orbit, the Toronto Stock Exchange's most active issue today, was up 0.34 to 1.64 on volume of 3.5 million shares.
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