DNO’s success in the battle for Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum will be a source of concern for some oil and gas industry watchers in Scotland.
Read more: Faroe Petroleum chief's interest valued at £13m as hostile bidder wins day
The Norwegian company prevailed following a bitter battle in which it insisted repeated claims from Faroe directors that it was making an opportunistic bid to buy the company on the cheap were unfair.
After increasing its offer from 152p per share to 160p per share on Tuesday, DNO said it only made the move to bring the saga to a speedy conclusion.
However, the renewed fall in the oil price from a four year high of $85 per barrel in October to less than $60 may have been a big factor in the success of the bid DNO launched in November.
Some Faroe shareholders may have decided to settle for 160p cash for their shares rather than hanging on to see how the firm and the oil and gas market developed.
Other oil and gas firms may be wondering if predators may be tempted to try to follow DNO’s lead.
DNO’s stewardship of the big North Sea business developed by Faroe will be closely monitored. While Faroe focused on Norway in recent years it has UK assets and tax losses to utilise. The company recently resumed exploration operations in UK waters. A well drilled off Shetland with Cairn Energy made what looked like a promising find.
Scotland faces the loss of another member of the band of stock-market listed firms that play such an important part in the country’s business sector. Listed companies provide work for firms ranging from lawyers to annual report printers. Lose too many and Scotland will struggle to keep fund managers that control how billions of pounds of capital are deployed around the world interested in the country.
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