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Shell ups Barrett bid
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April 26, 2001: 4:56 p.m. ET
Shell ups Barrett offer to $2B, or $60 a share, extends tender offer date
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shell Oil Co., a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group, raised its hostile takeover price Thursday for Barrett Resources to $2 billion, or $60 a share.
Shell also extended its tender offer until May 9. The $60 a share offer, up from its original $55 bid, represents a 36 percent premium to Barrett's trading levels when Shell made its original takeover attempt in early March.
Shell made the modified offer to Barrett's board and CEO Peter Dea in a letter Thursday, boosting the share price to ensure that Barrett fairly consider its offer as it evaluates bids from competitors.
Barrett's board will meet to evaluate the revised bid and the company will make a recommendation to shareholders in due course, the company said in a statement.
"Pending the Board's recommendation on the revised Shell offer, we continue to urge shareholders not to tender into the Shell offer or grant any written consents they may seek," Barrett's Dea said.
Barrett has established an early May bid date for parties that have visited its data room, Walter van de Vijver, CEO of Shell Exploration and Production Co., said in the letter.
Vijver urged Barrett to not enter into any merger agreements that include a break-up fee.
"If at the end of the auction there is another party willing to pay more than Shell, so be it, but the Barrett Board should not take money that a bidder is willing to pay for Barrett away from its shareholders," Vijver said.
On March 7, Shell proposed a cash acquisition of Barrett Resources at a price of $55 per share and said it would launch an offer for all outstanding shares if Barrett's board did not agree to the proposal. In addition to the cash offer, Shell said it would assume some $400 million in debt.
Barrett is a natural gas and oil exploration and production company, focused mainly on the United States, mostly in the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
At the time of Shell's proposal, Denver-based Barrett (BRR: up $1.85 to $63.75, Research, Estimates) shunned the $1.8 billion takeover bid and invited other companies to make competitive bids. Barrett also directed its management to pursue strategic alternatives.
Shell then bypassed Barrett's board and offered the deal directly to shareholders, setting a midnight April 6 deadline for shareholders to decide. Barrett's board unanimously rejected Shell's $1.8 billion takeover bid on March 23, calling the proposed purchase "inadequate." 
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