And, Todays Interview Proves it ! Arnav Sharma
Jan 6 (Reuters) - Canada's struggling oil sands developer Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd, which is under pressure from investors to sell itself, said the time was not ripe for such a move.
Some investors have been clamoring for a sale after the company turned down an unsolicited offer from an unnamed party in December.
"We indicated to the activist investors that they fly away, as our duty was to the corporation," Connacher Chief Executive Richard Gusella told Reuters by phone.
On Jan. 4, Canada's last independent mid-sized oil sands developer said it was suspending a hunt for a joint venture partner for its Great Divide property in Alberta and that some top executives had left.
The activist investors had said Connacher's plans to find a partner to keep operating as a stand-alone enterprise won't add enough value.
Gusella denied that joint venture talks had collapsed, but said they had only been suspended, possibly until mid-February.
"We may come back and talk to our favorite friends. Or we may say it was nice talking to you and we're going to go ahead on our own and that's the best," the Canadian oil industry veteran with four decades of experience said.
He did not reveal the parties involved in the talks.
The Calgary-based company's stock had fallen 17 percent after it rejected the unsolicited takeover proposal. The stock had hit a four-month high when it received the proposal. [ID: nL3E7ND3E5]
"The proposal was delivered to my office -- not surreptitiously but almost -- in an unmarked envelope if you will, with a letter from an investment banker, to see if they could buy the company from the bottom of the market," said Gusella.
The company, which is currently valued at C$385.5 million, has sold off assets in the last one year to fund its oil sands projects in Alberta.
It has cash on hand of C$81.7 million, and long-term debt of C$865.5 million as at Sept. 30, regulatory filings showed.
The stock has lost about 37 percent of its value in the last one year.
Gusella maintained that the company's debt is secured by its reserves at the Great Divide.
The oil sands project has 500 million barrels of proved and probable bitumen reserve base, as per a February 2011, reserve report.
Gusella, who has been at Connacher's helm for more than a decade, said it was his decision to fire the three senior executives, including its chief financial officer and chief operating officer.
"I am not going into the gory details, except to say it's everything from disobeying corporate principles, or whatever." (Reporting by Arnav Das Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) (arnav.sharma@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 4135 5800; Reuters messaging: arnav.sharma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))