Shell's $5.6B Buyout Offer For Duvernay Oil Approved By Shareholders

August 23, 2008 10:21 a.m. EST

Calgary, Alberta (AHN) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC is ready to acquire Duvernay Oil Corp. for $5.6 billion in cash after shareholders of the Calgary-based oil company endorsed its sale.

The Canadian government had also approved Shell's acquisition of Duvernay on Thursday through BRS Gas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Canada Ltd.

CBC reported shareholders of Duvernay voted in favor of Shell's takeover offer, with Shell gaining 97.7 percent of common shares for tender as of early Friday.

The oil giant will pay $83 a share for Duvernay and will buy the remaining common shares that were not tendered in the offer.

Duvernay common shares will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange. Shell has also requested securities regulatory authorities to stop issuing the shares.

Duvernay will expand Shell's portfolio in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It has gas processing and distribution assets in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta, producing about 27,000 barrels of oil a day, mostly natural gas.

Plans are underway to boost Duvernay's production to 70,000 barrels daily by 2012.