Canadian Oil Sands is accusing Suncor Energy of playing on fear in an attempt to succeed in their hostile takeover bid. The accusations started flying after Suncor sent a letter to shareholders of COS urging these individuals to accept the bid in spite of the fact that the COS board of directors firmly rejected the bid. The bid will expire in a few weeks and the letter may have been designed to speed things up and resolve the bid before it ends. A statement released by COS CEO Ryan Kubik stated “If Suncor had confidence in the merits of its bid, it wouldn’t be trying to ram it through by challenging our Shareholder Rights Plan. It would not need to try to steal time for a decision from our shareholders. Suncor is clearly not listening when our shareholders tell them the same thing they are saying to us — this bid won’t fly. Shareholders don’t need to do anything to reject this unwelcome and underwhelming bid. In fact, save yourself the time and hang up when Suncor or one of its paid brokers call.”

The statement continued by saying “As recently demonstrated in COS’ third quarter results, Syncrude is entering a new era of lower cost operations, COS can remain resilient through this period of low oil prices. Suncor wants to take value out of your pocket and put it into theirs.” Only time will tell whether the bid by Suncor Energy is successful, and whether the fear tactics that COS is accusing the company of work. What do you think of the hostile takeover bid?