CNOOC confident of Nexen bid

BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- CNOOC remains confident of wrapping up its purchase bid for Nexen by the end of this year and is willing to cooperate with the Canadian government during the extended review, CNOOC Chairman Wang Yilin said Friday.

"We think it a business as usual for the Canadian government to take a longer period of time to complete the review on our gigantic purchase costing 15.1 billion U.S. dollars," Wang told Xinhua on the sideline of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

On July 23, CNOOC announced to take over Nexen Inc. at 27.5 U.S. dollars per share. The Canadian government review on the acquisition, which has already been endorsed by Nexen shareholders, will last till Dec. 10.

With its previous acquisition bid for Unocal seven years ago being rejected by U.S. lawmakers citing national security concerns, CNOOC went into spotlight again because of uncertainties of the bidding this time.

If it is approved by the Canadian government, the deal will be China's largest overseas acquisition.

"Both CNOOC and Nexen are public-traded companies with good market performance and good operation records, such an acquisition goes with the globalization trend," Wang said, adding that his company is able to afford the acquisition.