Bne/Obe 2020 sept merger that failed The Obe offer of 2 for 1 back sept of 2020 may sound like an overpayment now but think of the context of the time and options available.
oil was 36-40 dollars that summer, Obe net debt was 480 at q3 2020 and Bne was 295m.
The share exchange ratio was probably based a lot on this the debt level and not as much on "Value' of the companies..it really was survival times. Obe was 40 cents on sept 2020 when it made this offer.
the market was so bad with oil so low, nobody was doing hostile takeovers on Obe.
Remember Obe price assumption for 2021 when it made Bne offer in 2020 fall was 50 wti.
could Obe really make 2021 with 480m in debt and 50 wti and a 25k boe Obe producer?
But oil happened to hit 75 by summer of 2021 and Obe made it.
Nobody can be mad at either management team because neither did a rights offering and allow management to get a large ownership for cheap. Rights offerings are so brutal and if 2021 had low oil prices at 50...that likely was in the cards...what else was a option?
At the time I would guess Bne may have been cautious on how a combined 775m debt company would navigate 2021 with 50 oil. So exchange rate may not matter so much if combined company has so much debt.
go look at financials from those years, it was hard times.