Malaysia's Petronas aims to overcome Canada's opposition to its $5.2 billion bid for Progress Energy Resources by adding more independent directors to the board of the gas producer, the Financial Times reported. The newspaper cited the Malaysian state oil firm's chief executive Shamsul Azhar Abbas as saying in an interview that Petronas was prepared to make the move to soothe Canada's concerns about a lack of transparency after the takeover.Canada blocked Petronas's bid for Progress last month, with Industry Minister Christian Paradis saying it was unlikely to bring a "net benefit" to the country. Petronas and Progress are planning a multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas plant on Canada's West Coast.Petronas has said it plans to make further submissions to win approval."We've told them if you want more transparency from us we're prepared to increase the number of independent directors (on the Progress board). It's good governance," Shamsul was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Progress Energy Resources Corp (Progress) is engaged in the exploration for, and the acquisition, development and production of, oil and natural gas reserves in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Shares of PRQ traded higher by 0.72% or $0.14/share to $19.60. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.44 and as high as $22.94. On average, 2357720 shares of PRQ.TO exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1369614.
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