Cnooc to Buy Nexen for $15 Billion

Cnooc to Buy Nexen for $15 Billion

BY DEALBOOK 2012/7/23
The great energy rush continues.

On Monday, Cnooc, the state-run oil giant, agreed to buy Nexen for $15 billion, as foreign players look to beef up their access to natural resources abroad.

Under the terms of the deal, Cnooc will pay $27.50 a share for the Canadian natural gas company. The price represents a 61 percent premium to Nexen’s closing price on Friday.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to build on our existing joint venture relationship with Nexen in Canada, and to acquire a leading international platform in the process,” Wang Yilin, chairman of
Cnoon, said in a statement.

The deal marks one of the biggest overseas expansion efforts by a Chinese company to date. Cnooc was behind one of the most prominent previous efforts when it sought to buy Unocal, an American oil company, but was stymied by political concerns.

Cnooc was advised by BMO Capital Markets, Citigroup and the law firms Stikeman Elliott and Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Nexen was advised by Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets and the law firms Blake Cassels & Graydon and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Its board was counseled by the Richard A. Shaw Professional Corporation and Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer.