AMSTERDAM - Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has made an agreed offer to buy Britain's Cove Energy PLC, which has assets in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, for around $1.58 billion in cash.
Shell said its offer of 195 pence per share for Cove, or 992.4 billion pounds, is a 29 per cent premium to Cove's average closing price over the past five days. Cove's shares have surged more than 50 per cent since the start of the year on takeover hopes.
Shell's main interest in Cove is for natural gas assets off the East African coast, and the offer is conditional on approval by Mozambique's government.