Post says PrimeWest buy "needs careful review"
2007-10-02 07:03 MT - In the News
The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that its own polling shows a wide majority of Canadian business leaders agree that a "careful" regulatory review of Abu Dhabi National Energy's acquisition of PrimeWest Energy Trust is necessary. The Post's Grant Surridge writes that in a Web survey by Compas Inc., 74 per cent of executives questioned want the deal to receive "careful regulatory review for strategic reasons." Said Conrad Winn, chief executive officer of Compas: "Canadian business is responding a bit like American business on the ports issue in the United States. They're not saying absolutely no, but that it's up to the government to look at this really carefully." Of those asked, 17 per cent disagreed with the need for a review, while 8 per cent said they were undecided. One of the views that garnered the most support for blocking the purchase was that energy is a strategic resource too important to fall into the hands of a company controlled by a foreign government. Several panelists submitted written comments saying the fact Taqa is state-owned makes it different from similar takeovers by a foreign company. "Free-market principles did not anticipate this event," wrote one respondent.
AI
