KNOC says $2.6 billion bid for Dana is final

LONDON (Reuters) - Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) KOILC.UL said it was not changing its $2.6 billion hostile bid for Dana Petroleum DNX.L after the UK oil explorer posted a 42 percent jump in profit on output at the bottom of its range.

"The interim results do not contain any new information that alters KNOC's view on value... Accordingly, KNOC's share offer of 1,800 pence per Dana Share remains full and final," the state-owned Korean company said in a statement on Friday.

Dana repeated it planned to publish a detailed response to the state-owned oil company's approach no later than September 8 and advised shareholders to take no action before that date.

An analyst who did not wish to be named said Dana's first-half results were in line with his forecasts and he had not expected any comment on the hostile bid.

"This was explicitly their interim results today and they are going to put out a defense document before the 8th September which will probably be the more interesting thing to read," he said.

Shares in Dana were up 0.1 percent at 1,807 pence at 1150 GMT on Friday, above the 1,800 pence level of KNOC's offer, indicating that investors have not given up hope KNOC will edge up its offer.

KNOC, which has a $6.5 billion war chest to spend on cutting South Korea's dependence on imported oil, first approached Dana in June.

After its approach was rejected in August, the South Korean company took its offer straight to the company's investors and said earlier this month it had received the backing of nearly 50 percent of shareholders.

On Wednesday, KNOC pressed further ahead with its hostile bid, posting offer documents which give Dana shareholders a deadline of September 23 to accept its offer.

Dana, which has assets in the North Sea and Egypt, said output for the year would be 40,000 to 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), lower than the 41,000 to 46,000 boepd flagged in June, as it posted a net profit that rose to 35.5 million pounds ($55.1 million) on a higher oil price.

Oil production in the first six months averaged 37,215 boepd, compared to guidance of 37,000 to 41,000 boepd given earlier in the year, said Dana.

($1=.6419 Pound)

(Reporting by Sarah Young and Tom Bergin; Editing by Mark Potter and Karen Foster)