Total Boosts Bid For UTS Energy

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — French oil giant Total SA raised its bid Monday for Canadian oil sands company UTS Energy Corp. by about 35 percent, but UTS and two of its major shareholders said the offer is still too low.

Total said Monday it had raised its offer to 829.8 million Canadian dollars ($676 million) from its January bid of about 616 million Canadian dollars.

UTS stock has since risen well above the initial bid of 1.30 Canadian dollars per share and is now trading at about 1.80 Canadian dollars on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Its latest bid is 1.75 Canadian dollars per share ($1.43).

"We think it's interesting to note the revised bid of $1.75 is below where the share price closed on Friday, which was $1.80," said UTS chief executive officer William Roach in an interview.

"The bid remains less than the cash plus the earn-in in the company. So it's still not attributing any value to any of the assets that we have."