U.S.-based Amerada Hess Corp. has refused to raise its offer for the U.K.'s Lasmo Plc , in response to Rome-based Eni 's counterbid of 200 pence per share for the multinational independent oil concern. Amerada's offer, made in November, is of approximately 180 pence per share, and the company says it does not intend to revise the terms of its offer. The decision was up to Lasmo shareholders. Eni is unloved by its own shareholders, presently, and by the Italian government. Amerada, meanwhile, would have to deal with having ownership of Iranian and Libyan assets, if its purchase of Lasmo were done. (See "Amerada Hess to Gain Iranian, Libyan Interests," Oil and Gas Investor, December 2000.) U.S.-based firms are prohibited from doing business in either country. Eni is already in Libya. Moody's Investors Service says, "While overlapping assets between the two companies should allow synergies of more than $70 million per annum, growth is the driving force behind the proposed acquisition. Lasmo's interests in Indonesia and North Africa are of particular interest to Eni's international strategy." Observers are wondering whether Amerada has some alternate takeover targets in its sights. "Folks have been inclined to believe that there is definitively a next move, and there may be," says Mark Gilman of ING Barings Securities LLC in New York. Amerada has made it very clear that it is looking for another core area to complement its relatively mature core areas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the U.K., Gilman adds. Potential candidates include West Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caspian Sea, all areas in which the company currently has fractional interests. "I think they will pursue such [acquisitions] on an opportunistic basis, which may or may not include taking any action in the foreseeable future. I don't think they have necessarily any specific areas and/or parameters in mind."
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