Dana Petroleum, which has become the target of a hostile takeover by South Korea's state-owned Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), tried to sway investors and its suitor alike, by saying that it is worth much more with its proposed purchase of Suncor Energy's assets in the UK.

In its defence document, the Aberdeen-based Dana said that KNOC was unaware of the scale of Dana's exploration programme and the impact of the acquisition of the oil producing interests of Petro Canada when it tabled its £18 offer in July. (See: South Korea's KNOC in talks to buy UK's Dana Petroleum) 

Dana said that according to independent expert asset evaluation, it is valued at £21.20 a share, valuing the company at £1.96 billion ($3 billion) before it agreed to pay $393 million to Suncor's Petro-Canada for production hubs in the UK North Sea. (See: Suncor divests Petro Canada Netherlands for $393 million to Dana Petroleum)

KNOC held preliminary talks with Dana that started in late June befor ending abruptly, forcing KNOC to make a £17-per-share cash offer to Dana on 2 July.

KNOC quickly followed it up by raising its bid to £18 on 20 July after Dana announced that it had discovered new oil in Egypt.

But despite its revised offer, Dana refused to engage with KNOC on the ground that KNOC should show that it has the necessary finances in place to fund the deal.

KNOC, which had maintained that it would not like to make a hostile bid but would like to conduct due diligence, secured funding guarantees from a group of Asian creditors and submitted it to Dana's advisers RBS Hoare Govett and Royal Bank of Canada on 30 July, the same day that Dana questioned the funding capability of KNOC.

Despite pressure from major Dana shareholders to open its books, Dana refused, forcing KNOC to go hostile with its bid on 20 August. (See: KNOC goes hostile with its bid on Dana Petroleum) 

The Anyang, South Korea-based oil company had said last month, that it has received letters of intent in support of its £18 a share offer from the holders of approximately 48.62 per cent of interests in Dana shares.

But even as it posted its defense and once again rejected KNOC's offer, Dana's share price remained nearly static at £18.05 in today's trading, reflecting that investors of the company were not swayed by Dana's defense to force KNOC to make a higher offer.

''For proof that Dana is worth substantially more than 1800p per share, our shareholders need look no further than KNOC's extraordinary actions. For a national oil company to launch a hostile offer without access to detailed technical information, means KNOC must be highly confident that the Dana assets are worth much more than their offer price,'' said Colin Goodall, chairman of Dana.

Although KNOC has maintained that its offer is fair, analysts feel that the South Korean company may raise its offer marginally to close the deal.

Dana currently produces from 54 including 15 new offshore fields and 3 new onshore fields across four countries and holds more than 100 interests in exploration and production licenses spanning nine countries.

Dana's activities are focused within its two core areas of Europe (North Sea) and Africa. In Africa, Dana has production, development and exploration interests across Egypt, oil and gas discoveries offshore Mauritania and Morocco, and additional exploration opportunities offshore Senegal and Guinea.

Dana has significant exploration prospects which, if successful, could quadruple reserves by the end of 2012. Dana said that it is drilling the high impact Anne Marie and Cormoran prospects in the next two months which, if successful, will be material for the Company, and these two prospects alone are valued at 585p per share, based on the independent expert's asset valuations.