Medco eyes Novus' size oil firm in Indonesia
Tuesday, February 24 2004 - 02:21 AM WIB
"The company being targeted by Medco is of Novus' size," the paper quoted Medco's finance director Sugiharto as saying over the weekend.
Sugiharto however refused to mention the company's name due to its confidentiality agreement with it.
He said his company still kept its initial target of making 10 acquisitions of strategic oil and gas assets in Indonesia. He refused to elaborate, however.
"It is likely that there needs to be new liability building this year, and for this purpose we have to be ready for a re-rating. This is meant to ensure that our strategic acquisitions will not cause a drop in our company's rating," Sugiharto said.
As regards Medco's plan of acquiring Novus, Sugiharto said Medco they had delayed until March 9 the closing date of its takeover bid to give response to the bidder statement issued by its rival Crossby Capital Partner.
Sugiharto said Crossby had extended to Feb 18 its plan of issuing its bidder statement.
Last December, Medco launched an off-market takeover bid for all the issued ordinary shares in Novus, for A$1.74 per share. This offer values the equity in Novus at A$326 million on a fully diluted basis. (*)