State-run Korea National Oil Corp has agreed to buy Canada's Harvest Energy Trust for C$4.1bn (US$3.9bn), the latest move by South Korea to compete with other resource-hungry Asian economies for overseas assets.
The deal would be the second-largest overseas acquisition by a Korean group, behind Doosan Infracore's $4.9bn purchase of Bobcat's assets in 2007, and South Korea's biggest overseas oil and gas deal to date, according to Dealogic.
The South Korean group said it would pay C$1.8bn in cash for shares in Harvest – an oil and gas producer and refiner in western Canada that produces 53,400 barrels of oil and gas a day – at C$10 each. That represents a 37 per cent premium over Wednesday's closing price of C$7.30.