Halliburton Shares Jump After Expro Deal Ends
Halliburton Co. shares raced to a new record high as oil prices climbed and the oilfield service provider walked away from an offer to buy Expro International Group PLC.
The stock rose more than 5 percent at one point in the session, touching a high of $52.84, before moving back to $52.50, up $2.45 in afternoon trading.
The gains came amid a broad-based rally among energy stocks, which drove higher as oil prices continued their advance. Energy traders bought up crude after a weekend oil summit in Saudi Arabia failed to produce any surprise production increases and concerns mounted that output from Nigeria will decline.
Halliburton had raised its all-cash offer to $3.6 billion on Friday, topping a $3.5 billion bid from a private equity consortium led by Candover Group. Its offer was contingent, however, on Expro’s delaying meetings to approve the Candover bid _ something that Expro did not do, saying that the Halliburton bid was not in the best interest of shareholders.
