QUESTIONS OVER NEXEN
INVESTORS TRY TO DECIPHER MESSAGE ON TAKEOVERS
As far as NDP leader Tom Mulcair is concerned, there’s just one clear net benefit to a Chinese state-owned company’s takeover of a Calgarybased petroleum producer.
“The only clear net benefit is to Nexen shareholders in Mr. Harper’s oilpatch,” Mulcair told Global’s The West Block on Sunday.
“I think it has as much to do with that as anything else.”
On Friday, the Harper government declared that it had approved CNOOC’s $15.1-billion takeover of Nexen, while warning that state-owned enterprise takeovers of oilsands companies will only be permitted on “an exceptional basis only.”
In announcing its approval of the the CNOOC-Nexen Conservative transaction, government introduced a series of grittier rules for acquisitions of Canadian companies by state-owned enterprises.
The Harper government spent months reviewing China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC) $15.1-billion proposed takeover of Nexen, and whether the deal offered a “net benefit” to Canada — a broadly defined test under the Investment Canada Act.
Industry Minister Christian Paradis wouldn’t say whether CNOOC made any last minute improvements to its offer other than what it had already publicly committed to. He also wouldn’t say whether any environmental guarantees were given or asked for, telling CTV’s Question Period on Sunday that he’s “not allowed” to go public with the undertakings of the sale because of commercial sensitivity.
Mulcair accused the Harper government of “making it up as they go along,” and questioned what exactly comprised an exceptional basis.
“Well what does that mean? When it’s Friday? Is that an exceptional circumstance?”