ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the overseas investment arm of India's largest oil exploration company Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) said Tuesday (30^th December) that it would proceed with its £1.4 billion bid for acquisition of the UK-listed Imperial Energy.

 

Earlier, OVL was far short of getting the required 90% shares from Imperial Energy's shareholders, a source in London said on condition of anonymity.

 

As per the acquisition offer, OVL is well within its right to walk out of the 1,250 pence per share acquisition deal, if it does not receive 90% valid sale offers by Imperial shareholders at the stipulated time.

 

The deal, worth $2.1 billion, is being reviewed by the Takeover Panel in Britain. The panel said Monday (29^th December) that it had denied a request from ONGC to extend the Tuesday (30^th December) deadline for submitting its offering document to Imperial shareholders.

 

If completed, the deal would be ONGC's biggest acquisition, giving it access to Russian reserves and securing energy assets overseas to counter dwindling output at home.