Occidental Bids $38 Billion for Anadarko in Plan to Beat Chevron

(Bloomberg) -- The first major bidding war has broken out in the Permian.

After being rebuffed several times, Occidental Petroleum Corp. on Wednesday made public a $38 billion offer to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp., seeking to break up a proposed takeover by Chevron Corp. The $76 per share cash-and-stock bid for The Woodlands, Texas-based oil and natural gas producer is 20 percent more than Chevron’s $33 billion April 12 agreement.

For Occidental, which has a market of about $46 billion, the acquisition would be its largest ever and the biggest purchase of an oil producer anywhere in at least four years. It would pull together two second-tier oil and natural gas producers, as opposed to Chevron’s bid to create another "ultramajor" to rival Exxon Mobil Corp. It would require Anadarko to pay a $1 billion breakup fee to Chevron.

In an email, Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said the company was “confident the transaction agreed to by Chevron and Anadarko will be completed.”

A tie-up would help Occidental maintain its leading position in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, where it currently faces being overtaken by Chevron, which has ambitious growth plans for the region. The Permian is the world’s fast-growing oil major patch and has helped to turn the U.S. into a net exporter, also making it a bigger producer than Saudi Arabia.

"This highlights the potential of the Permian," said Rob Thummel, managing director at Tortoise, which manages energy-related assets. "Chevron will fight because acreage in Permian fits so well with its existing acreage, increasing the potential for better-than-expected operational synergies."

Anadarko said in a statement it will review Occidental’s proposal and reaffirmed its recommendation of Chevron’s offer.

Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub said in a Bloomberg Television interview that the offer is the same it made to Anadarko in January 2018. The company has also made three bids since late March, she said Wednesday in a letter to Anadarko’s board of directors. Occidental said it has completed its due diligence on the deal and has financing lined up with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup Inc.

“Size is not what we’re going after, it’s really ,” Hollub said in the interview. “There are some producers in the Permian where it would be really difficult to pay the purchase price and get any synergies at all.”

Anadarko’s shares jumped 12 percent to close at $71.40 in New York, while Occidental slipped 0.6 percent. Bonds of both companies traded lower.

The latest offer may not be as appealing to Anadarko shareholders as Chevron’s, despite the higher price. Occidental’s smaller size and balance sheet relative to Chevron mean there may be more uncertainty over its prospects of completing a deal. And it’s not immediately obvious how Occidental would fund Anadarko’s giant liquefied natural gas plant that’s being developed in Mozambique, although Hollub said Wednesday on a conference call with analysts that her company is capable of handing the project.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

"Occidental’s capital structure and debt would shift more significantly than Chevron’s, which has a sizable balance sheet and better-fitting assets. Occidental would need to sell assets to fund a deal."

"We’re uncertain how Anadarko’s Gulf of Mexico assets or its LNG project are corporate fits, though the bid extends the acquisition drama and puts the ball in Chevron’s court to woo shareholders."

--Vincent G. Piazza, senior industry analyst
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