Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : TLM.TSE Talisman Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (688)	1/7/2000 1:24:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 1713

Heat turned up on Talisman for Sudan investment - Seen as takeover target Financial Post, January 7 Ian McKinnon CALGARY - The divestment campaign against Talisman Energy Inc. gained momentum this week as one U.S. group dropped its stake and the state of New Jersey confirmed it is considering doing the same with its 680,000 shares. But an analyst said the company's controversial $800-million investment in Sudan has already been discounted in its stock price and the mounting pressure could make Canada's largest independent producer a takeover target. The Calgary-based company has been under heavy fire for its 25% interest in the Greater Nile Oil Project, currently pumping about 155,000 barrels of oil per day in the African country. Sudan has been torn for decades by civil war that has killed or displaced millions of citizens. Officials from the California Public Employees' Retirement System said this week that its entire position, more than 200,000 shares of Talisman, were sold as of Dec. 31. The sale was driven by the steep decline in Talisman's shares and a year-end rebalancing of an index fund, said a spokeswoman for CALPERS, the largest public pension fund in the United States. New Jersey, which owns 680,000 shares of Talisman in its investment portfolio, is seriously considering divesting. "We might very well end up backing out of this investment," Pete McDonough, a spokesman for Christine Todd Whitman, the governor, told the Bergen County Record. "The controversy is not going to go away." Mr. McDonough was not available for comment yesterday. Last month, TIAA-CREF, a college teachers' fund, sold out of Talisman, where it once owned 261,000 shares. It followed the lead of the Texas Teachers Retirement Fund which dumped its 100,000 shares in November. Stephen Calderwood, a Calgary analyst with Salman Partners Inc., said the divestment campaign has caused Talisman's shares to swoon in the past five months, falling to around $38 from $49 last September. The 29% drop greatly exceeded the 10% contribution Sudan is expected to make to Talisman's production in 2000. "The value of the Sudanese assets is totally out of the stock price at the moment. If that's the problem with the Talisman story, that they are invested in Sudan, then we're already at or near the bottom," Mr. Calderwood said. "The stock price is so far below the fundamental value of this story that I think they're a potential takeover target." He said Talisman is substantially under-valued, particularly as it is working on a swap of North Sea assets that will add more daily production this year than what comes from Sudan. nationalpost.com