Chevron Corp. said July 29 it was anxious to seal a takeover of Unocal Corp. as it revealed a drop of 10% in its second-quarter earnings. Shareholders in Unocal, the subject of a hotly contested rival bid from a Chinese state-owned firm, will vote on August 10 on whether to accept Chevron's offer.
Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon Mobil Corp., said its net earnings came to $3.7 billion in the second quarter, or $1.76 a share, compared with $4.1 billion a year ago.
Unocal meanwhile reported second-quarter net earnings of $475 million, or $1.73 a share, up sharply from $341 million dollars in the same period last year.
Chevron's stock-and-cash bid for Unocal is worth about $17.1 billion, less than the $18.5 billion in cash offered by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC). But Chevron is confident it will prevail on August 10 given the strength of political opposition in Washington to Unocal falling into the hands of a company controlled by the Chinese government.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
