Shares in Australia-based Mosman Oil And Gas Ltd sagged by more than a third this morning, after the company told investors that a deal to acquire oil from a Wood County oil field had fallen through.
Mosman had been set to purchase an 80-percent controlling interest in the Pine Mills oil field near Minneola, for $786,000 Australian dollars. That’s about $588,000 in U.S. currency.
U.K.-based industry website ProactiveInvestors reported that the possibility of adding a producing oil asset for a—quote-- “attractive” price saw Mosman shares more than double in value.
But a minority holder in Pine Mills has exercised a pre-emptive right to hold up the deal. The pre-emptive right is, essentially, the right of first refusal.
News of the legal snag sent Mosman shares tumbling by 36 percent.
The matter is now reportedly in lawyers’ hands while Mosman reviews the validity of the pre-emption.
