{"id":65642,"date":"2025-10-21T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/10\/21\/cenovus-delays-shareholder-vote-on-meg-takeover-offer-on-signs-bid-could-fall-short-of-necessary-support\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T15:00:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:00:46","slug":"cenovus-delays-shareholder-vote-on-meg-takeover-offer-on-signs-bid-could-fall-short-of-necessary-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/10\/21\/cenovus-delays-shareholder-vote-on-meg-takeover-offer-on-signs-bid-could-fall-short-of-necessary-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Cenovus delays shareholder vote on MEG takeover offer on signs bid could fall short of necessary support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why the MEG Energy fight feels familiar yet unusual\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OcM7zEi0CC0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> For the second time, a shareholder vote on Cenovus Energy Inc\u2019s takeover of MEG Energy Corp. has been postponed, as the oilsands major gears up for what could be a final push to bring the contested deal to a close. <\/p>\n<p> MEG said in a statement Tuesday that about 63 per cent of shareholders were in support of Cenovus\u2019s bid, based on votes that were submitted early by proxy, or were expected to be cast in person at Thursday\u2019s meeting <\/p>\n<p>                        <span>\u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                         just shy of the two-thirds required for approval. <\/p>\n<p> The move came as a surprise to investors and market watchers who had expected Cenovus to handily secure the supermajority of votes required after rival suitor Strathcona Resources Ltd. dropped its bid earlier this month. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cI was working on the assumption, I think most people in the market were, that once you get down to essentially a single active bidder, it was more or less over,\u201d Michael Tims, vice-chair of Matco Investments Ltd. and former chair of investment bank Peters &amp; Co., said. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cBut it\u2019s more complicated than maybe Cenovus or the market assumed.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> The delay has cast fresh doubt on the outcome of a drawn-out takeover battle <\/p>\n<p>                        <span>that has gripped the Canadian oilpatch since last spring when Strathcona launched the hostile bid that put MEG on the auction block.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/25668045\/embed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> Cenvous had appeared on the verge of victory heading into this week\u2019s shareholder vote. It was armed with a board-backed offer valuing MEG at about $8.5 billion and increased firepower in the form of newly acquired shares in the target company that it planned to vote in favour of the deal. <\/p>\n<p> But Tuesday\u2019s delay appeared to rattle investors, with analysts at TD Securities and Scotiabank warning the deal could fail again. <\/p>\n<p> \u201c(Cenovus) is still short which is concerning as we do not see potential for further increases to the offer,\u201d Menno Hulshof, managing director of equity research at TD Securities, said in a note Tuesday that downgraded MEG\u2019s stock from \u201cbuy\u201d to \u201csell\u201d. <\/p>\n<p> \u201c(We) still believe the (Cenovus-MEG) transaction will ultimately be approved, but the visibility has fallen considerably over the past few days.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> The latest setback comes on the heels of at least three MEG shareholders filing complaints to the the Alberta Securities Commission over the board\u2019s decision to release Cenovus from typical \u201cstandstill\u201d provisions, enabling it to buy more of MEG\u2019s stock. <\/p>\n<p> The complaints allege the move was unfair to shareholders and rival suitor Strathcona, effectively dissuading any further competitive bids for MEG by providing a crucial procedural advantage to Cenovus. <\/p>\n<p> Neither MEG nor Cenovus have addressed the concerns raised in the complaints. The regulator has not commented. <\/p>\n<p> Cenovus\u2019s move to buy a stake in MEG was supposed to boost its chances in the most recent vote <\/p>\n<p>                        <span>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                         but it failed, Asheef Lalani, chief investment officer at Toronto-based family office Berczy Park Capital and former portfolio manager for UBS Securities, said. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThey still don\u2019t have the support, even after doing that,\u201d Lalani said. <\/p>\n<p> Lalani, who is one of the three known shareholders to have complained to Alberta\u2019s securities watchdog, and a holder of stock in both MEG and Strathcona, said he had hoped to see the regulator step in to require MEG to restart the vote or the entire sales process. <\/p>\n<p> <span>\u201cCenovus obviously doesn\u2019t want that, because they see a path to the finish line,\u201d Lalani said.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> \u201cBut it\u2019s highly uncertain right now. If (Cenovus) are unable to make it over the line by next week, they might have to walk. I don\u2019t know how many extensions they have left to keep trying.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> In the lead up to the new shareholder meeting on Oct. 30, investors and dealmakers said they expect Cenovus will be pouring over MEG\u2019s shareholder list, looking to see who has voted and who could still be persuaded in a final push to get the deal over the line. <\/p>\n<p> The oilsands major will likely be targeting short-term investors, hedge funds and other traders who bought MEG more recently, betting its shares would rise on the deal with Cenovus. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe normal approach is a bit of carrot and stick,\u201d Tims said. \u201cThe carrot is, \u2018this is a full and fair offer, and it\u2019s a better alternative than anything else that\u2019s on the table and that it\u2019s available now.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe stick is, \u2018if you don\u2019t accept it, and the vote fails, the chances are the share price drops\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Most oil from Trans Mountain pipeline ships to China, boosting Canadian prices<\/li>\n<li>Amid gas glut in Western Canada, tanker traffic from LNG Canada falls short of expectations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> mpotkins@postmedia.com <\/p>\n\n<br \/>Cenovus delays shareholder vote on MEG takeover offer on signs bid could fall short of necessary support<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2025-10-21 15:00:46<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the second time, a shareholder vote on Cenovus Energy Inc\u2019s takeover of MEG Energy Corp. has been postponed, as the oilsands major gears up for what could be a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/65643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}