Chevron’s $33 billion cash and stock purchase of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is still in effect but Anadarko announced Monday it intends to resume negotiations with another prospective buyer—Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
The Chevron deal was announced April 11 but last week on April 24, Occidental Petroleum announced its own proposal to acquire Anadarko. Now Anadarko has stepped back and decided to take another look at which deal is best.
Anadarko stated it planned to resume talks with Occidental because its board of directors, following consultation with its financial and legal advisors “has unanimously determined that the Occidental proposal could reasonably be expected to result in a “Superior Proposal” as defined in the Chevron Merger agreement.”
Anadarko said the Occidental proposal reflected “significant improvement” in value, terms and conditions and closing certainty compared to its previous offer to Anadarko.
Occidental would acquire Anadarko in a transaction involving $38 in cash and 0.6094 of a share of Occidental common stock per share of Anadarko common stock. Under the Chevron agreement, Chevron would acquire Anadarko with $16.25 in cash and 0.3869 of a share of Chevron common stock per share of Anadarko common stock.
“There can be no assurance that negotiations with Occidental will result in a transaction that is superior to the pending transaction with Chevron. Further, the terms of any transaction with Occidental may vary from those reflected in the Occidental Proposal,” stated the company in the announcement.