Harvest Energy Trust Trust Units (HTE)

[mlkrborn]

Up $2s on news to be acquired by the south Korean firm:

Korea's KNOC buying Canada's Harvest for $3.9 bln
11:08p ET October 21, 2009 (MarketWatch)

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Canada's Harvest Energy Trust said late Wednesday its has agreed to sell itself to Korea National Oil Corp. for 4.1 billion Canadian dollars ($3.92 billion) in cash and debt payments.

Harvest said KNOC would pay 10 Canadian dollars a share in cash and assume 2.3 billion Canadian dollars in existing debt.

The deal would be the largest acquisition of a foreign oil firm by a South Korean company, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The acquisition terms represent a 47% premium over Harvest's 30-day weighted average trading price, the company said.

Shares of Alberta-based Harvest closed down 0.1% at 7.30 Canadian dollars in Toronto and up 1% at $7.01 in the New York Wednesday, ahead of the announcement.

The deal, which still faces regulatory and shareholder approval, includes a 100 million Canadian dollar non-completion fee for KNOC if the transaction doesn't go through.

The Korean firm will also have five business days to match any competing offers before the closing of the deal, expected in December.

KNOC President Young-won Kang was quoted in the Harvest statement as saying his company "believes Harvest is a perfect fit for KNOC's North American growth strategy. KNOC has ambitious plans for future growth and is committed to a long term investment strategy in Canada."