Opti Canada Inc (OPC.TO) shares skidded 38 percent in heavy volume on Wednesday as investors sold off the oil sands developer on fears about a deteriorating financial position. A day earlier, Opti, which has a 35 percent stake in Nexen Inc's (NXY.TO) Long Lake oil sands project, said it hired Lazard Freres & Co LLC to help it examine strategic options for its large debt load. That is in addition to two other financial advisers that have explored asset divestitures or a sale of the company for more than a year. Shares of Opti tumbled 17 Canadian cents to a new low of 28 Canadian cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange, on volume of more than 16 million. That compares to an average daily volume over the last three months of 3.2 million shares. The stock has dropped more than 50 percent since Friday.
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