By: Jordan Blum – Houston Chronicle – Houston’s Occidental Petroleum is upping its offer to buy Anadarko Petroleum, creating a public bidding war and takeover effort after Chevron agreed to acquire Anadarko 12 days ago.
Occidental said it is offering roughly $38 billion for Anadarko in a cash-and-stock deal, valuing The Woodlands-based producer at $76 per share versus Chevron’s $33 billion deal at $65 a share.
Oxy had previously offered more than $70 a share, but Anadarko chose the lower Chevron bid, seeing a better strategic fit and a bet on Chevron’s long-term value.
“We have been focused on Anadarko for several years because we have long believed that we are ideally positioned to generate compelling value from a combination with them,” said Oxy Chief Executive Vicki Hollub. “We look forward to engaging immediately with Anadarko’s board and stakeholders to deliver this superior transaction.”
Oxy said it has made three offers for Anadarko since late March. This is the second offer for $76 per share. The last included 40 percent cash, and Oxy is upping it to a 50-50 cash-and-stock deal. Oxy’s first offer only included 25 percent cash, Hollub said.
“We think our bid is so compelling now … we think this is the superior bid and there’s a lot of ground to make up there,” she said Wednesday in a conference call.
While Chevron saw Anadarko as meshing well with its assets in the booming Permian Basin and the Gulf of Mexico, Oxy, which is an increasingly Permian-focused firm, believes it is the better fit, Hollub said.
“Occidental is a leader in using technological innovation to create value, and we will deploy our expertise to enhance the performance and productivity of Anadarko’s assets not only in the Permian, but globally,” she said.
Oxy is offering $38.00 in cash and 0.6094 shares of Occidental common stock for each share of Anadarko.
Chevron’s accepted offer is for .3869 shares of Chevron stock and $16.25 in cash for each Anadarko share.
The Chevron-Anadarko deal includes a $1 billion breakup fee.
