Mosman Oil & Gas says MEO takeover could still happen

New Zealand and Australia-focused explorer Mosman Oil & Gas is holding out hopes that a takeover bid for rival group MEO will still succeed despite the latter's decision to reject it.

Mosman announced last week that it was offering one of its shares for every 20 ASX-listed fully paid ordinary shares in MEO to acquire 100% of the share capital of MEO.

MEO bosses on Monday rebuffed the bid, saying it was inferior to another takeover proposal for the company made by Neon Energy on 5 November.

But Mosman's executive chairman John Barr said: "The Mosman directors believe there's a strong possibility that the proposed merger between MEO and Neon will not occur and that the takeover bid affords the MEO shareholders a viable alternative."

Shares in Mosman rose 0.38p or 2.3% to 16.75p at 14:58 in London.