Sydney—The proposed “merger of equals” between Australian exploration and production companies ROC Oil and Horizon Oil has been scotched by China’s Fosun International, which has emerged with a A$474 million ($441 million) takeover offer for ROC. ROC said Monday it had entered into a bid implementation agreement with Fosun under which the Hong Kong-listed company would acquire all of ROC at A$0.69/share in cash. The off-market offer, which is subject to Australian government approval, represents a 52% premium to the closing price of ROC shares prior to the April announcement of its proposed A$800 million merger with Horizon, and a 23% premium to ROC’s closing price on June 24, when it revealed it had received its first indicative takeover proposal.
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