MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co said on Friday it had extended its public tender offer for a smaller rival, Toa Oil Co, in which a US investment fund has been building up a stake, reported Reuters.
In a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Idemitsu said the tender would run until Feb. 15, as Toa Oil had revised its earnings forecast.
Idemitsu launched the tender in December to buy all the shares of Toa Oil at 2,450 yen each in a deal worth 15 billion yen (USD143 million).
Toa shares have since surged to trade above Idemitsu’s offer. By Thursday, asset manager Cornwall Capital Management had boosted its stake to 22.98%, a public filing showed, amassing a stake sufficient to block a bid.
Idemitsu, which already owns 50.12% of Toa, aims to acquire a further stake of at least 16.55% to succeed in its bid.
Shares of Toa Oil closed at 2,805 yen on Friday. (USD1=104.5500 yen)
As MRC informed earlier, Japan's Idemitsu Kosan took off-stream its naphtha cracker in Japan for a turnaround on September 7, 2020. The cracker remained under maintenance by end-October, 2020. Located at Tokuyama, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 690,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 110,000 mt/year. Idemitsu Kosan also operates another cracker in Chiba, Japan, with an ethylene production capacity of 410,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC