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Essay about Gulf Oil case study

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The Standard Oil Company of California(Socal) is trying to determine how much to bid on the Gulf Oil Corporation. George Keller, the CEO of Socal, would need to borrow 14 billion dollars in order to make a substantial bid. While banks are willing to lend the money because of Socal's low to debt ratio, the loan would put the company in a highly leveraged position. In order to alleviate that debt, some of Gulf's assets could be sold. Keller has to consider the value of Gulf's exploration and development program when calculating future returns. Two billion dollars were being spent on the exploration and development program. This money could instead be used to reduce the debt if Socal acquired the company. However, the exploration program …show more content…

Mesa would need a majority hold of Gulf in order to elect alternative directors of the firm. The purpose of electing new directors would be to turn the Gulf corporation into a royalty trust. If Mesa were to put up more money for the company, it would only do so for the purpose of gaining a majority hold. Because this was not an attainable goal, Mesa sought the 21% ownership because it was enough attract the further banking needed.
Advised Decision A prospective buyer has to consider the motives and financial positions of other bidders. Kohlberg wants to buyout the company in order to turn it into a private firm. ARCO has a pretty strict limit in what it can offer because of its highly leveraged position. Even if a company has the ability to take out a larger loan to make a greater offer, it has to consider the consequences of doing so. While a company like Socal has unrestricted credit, its decisions as to how to operate the company after the buyout are very limited. Creating a lot of debt in order to finance the purchase is a large risk. If the company does not perform well in the future it could face tremendous loss. In this case, a bid of $80 per share would be appropriate for an un-leveraged company like Socal. This would be enough to win Gulf while still leaving breathing room for shareholders. Taxes do not need to be considered, because the benefits cancel out the

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