Canada’s Oilexco ‘up for sale’
Canadian-based outfit Oilexco has been put up for sale, according to reports in the UK media.
The report in the Sunday Times newspaper comes weeks after Oilexco failed to find sources of funding and abandoned plans to raise as much as $150 million selling convertible debentures and to issue 20 million shares because its board considered the move too dilutive.
A source close to the company told Reuters that a sale of the company is "one of a number of options".
He added that financing was still the preferred option, possibly through mezzanine debt or alternative sources of capital.
The company has been looking for ways to pay for its exploration programmes in the UK sector of the North Sea since early October when it said it was having difficulty closing financing it had arranged with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The report said the company had already received interest from BG Group, Talisman Energy and PetroCanada, while Danish shipping and oil group AP Moller-Maersk is also considering a bid.
Morgan Stanley has been appointed to review the options of the company.
Oilexco declined to comment on the report.