Shares in Venture Production, the North Sea oil and gas group, rose this morning as shareholders threw their weight behind the company’s decision to reject Centrica’s £1.3 billion offer for the business, branding the 845p a share offer as “opportunistic”.
Venture shares were up 41p, 5.2 per cent, to 826p when the markets opened. Earlier today Larry Kinch, one of the founders of Venture in 1997, and ArcLight Capital Partners, who together own nearly 13 per cent of the company, had said they believed that the offer by Centrica, which owns British Gas, significantly undervalued the business.
Mike Wagstaff, chief executive of Venture Production, said at the weekend that the company’s shareholders would demand at least 900p a share to accept a takeover.
“We have