Chinese oil producer CNOOC Ltd. may need to raise its bid for Unocal Corp. to more than $19 billion to win the race for the U.S. oil and gas producer, analysts said Thursday.
CNOOC has board authorization to step up its bid to $69 a share, from $67 now, but analysts say a knock-out price is needed to pry Unocal’s board away its preferred buyer, Chevron Corp., even though CNOOC’s offer is already higher than Chevron’s.
Without a big jump in CNOOC’s bid, Unocal shareholders are likely to back the sweetened stock and cash offer of $63 per share from Chevron.