Everybody by now has heard that Talisman is getting bought out for US$8/share by Respol. Talisman was in the middle of some fairly serious difficulties and this is probably a very welcome takeover which should easily glide through a shareholder vote.
The focus of this post is not on the actual takeover, but rather whether the Canadian government will clear the acquisition or not – if it was a Chinese national entity doing the takeover, the primary headlines would be about whether the government would allow it or not. Presumably Talisman management would be smart enough to pre-consult with the appropriate federal officials to see if the acquisition would proceed.
This is very likely a welcome injection of about US$13 billion (when one factors in debt) and most institutions this very minute are likely dumping shares and bonds of the company – these assets will get redeployed elsewhere. Despite crude oil and gas being down a tiny bit today, most Canadian oil and gas equities have increased a moderate single-digit percentage.
The question is – are there more acquisitions to come in the Canadian oil and gas space?