Koreans close in on Dana takeover

Schroder Investment Management, Dana's largest shareholder, confirmed it sold a more than 10 million shares to KNOC last week.

An analyst at Oriel Securities said "Dana was already gone" and expected that by next week, when the bid timetable's first closing date occurs, the $1.87 billion deal will have been concluded.

He said: "Dana is gone and has been gone for several weeks. The chances of a competing bidder were zero anyway. This is just moving that process forward. We expect at the first close for the deal to have gone through."

Dana has been fighting to persuade the Korean company to raise its 18 a share bid. Last week, the board of Dana, led by chief executive Tom Cross, issued an impassioned defence document which pegged its value at somewhere between 2,270p and 2,465p per share and said it was in a period of "transformational growth."

It is understood that Dana may make an announcement about results from its Anne Marie exploration well before Thursday.

But the Koreans have held firm on their 18 a share a bid. KNOC has also waived its rights to increase its offer except in the case of a rival bidder emerging, although the scale of its shareholding now makes it even less likely a white knight will emerge.

Restrictions on KNOC buying shares in Dana were lifted after the firm announced its acquisition of North Sea assets from Canadian firm Suncor. Dana had shared details of its plans to buy the oil fields with the Koreans during initial negotiations thus preventing KNOC from trading in its shares until the sale was made public.

Craig Howie, an oil and gas analyst at Shore Capital said: "The fact that nearly a third of their shareholders have sold their shares to KNOC implies that many shareholders in fact feel KNOC's offer is fair.

"The bidder is making inroads in terms of obtaining support from Dana shareholders and it seems they are well on the way to succeeding despite the company's defence," he added.