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Mystery and speculation once again engulf Regal Petroleum

Daily Mail 

By SARAH MARKS

Last updated at 5:36 PM on 03rd October 2008

Mystery and speculation once again engulfed Regal Petroleum as reports of a £666million takeover by Shell were denied. 

The Daily Telegraph today reported Shell had written to Regal chairman Keith Henry proposing a deal that values Regal shares at 300p each, a huge premium to the 83p at which the stock closed last night.

But Regal whose share had begun to soar before settling on a 36 per cent rise to 113p, said unequivocally in a statement to the Stock Exchange that ‘no such approach has been received’.

The report and subsequent rebuttal immediately started tongues wagging in a notoriously gossipy industry.

It is understood that a letter proposing such a deal is in existence but there are doubts as to its status. The popular theory is that the letter is a forgery and being used by persons or parties unknown to ramp up the Regal share price.The Daily Telegraph today reported that Shell had written to Regal chairman Keith Henry proposing a deal that values Regal shares at 300p each, a huge premium to the 83p at which the stock closed last night.

But Regal whose shares had begun to soar before settling on a 42p rise to 125p, said unequivocally in a statement to the Stock Exchange that ‘no such approach has been received’.

The report and subsequent rebuttal immediately started tongues wagging in a notoriously gossipy industry.

It is understood that a letter proposing such a deal is in existence but there are doubts as to its status. The popular theory is that the letter is a forgery and being used by persons or parties unknown to ramp up the Regal share price. The conspiracy theory is that it is a leak of letter that Shell – a fellow Ukraine explorer – had not yet sent. The least likely theory is that Shell had sent the letter but that the Post Office has yet to deliver it.

Regal founder, 15 per cent shareholder and one-time chief executive Frank Timis caused a storm in 2005 when he appeared to crank up hopes of a major oil find off the coast of Greece only for the wells to be found to be dry, burning many investors who had chased the shares up to 500p. Timis, however, would pocket £99million were a deal to go through at this level.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1067284/Market-close-London-Stock-Exchange-Bank-England-efforts-boost-FTSE.html

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