Dana Petroleum, the company in the midst of a hostile takeover from Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) will release its interim results on Friday including a full disclosure on its plans to develop North Sea oil assets bought from Suncor recently that will see the onus placed back on the state owned oil company, KNOC to up its bid.

KNOC which bid 1800 pence, a sixty percent premium to Dana's share price - which had underperformed - on 2nd July was not enough to convince the board to accept. The Korea National Oil Corp has responded by going hostile after it said it had 48.62 per cent of shareholders behind it.

However, with Dana owner and co-founder Tom Cross keen to push for more, it remains to be seen how much further Korea National Oil Corp will have to go to get their prize as the Dana board believe that KNOC would prefer a 'recommended' deal rather than going more hostile.

Although privately agreeing to accept a takeover, it appears that the Dana board - should they actually go as far as recommending it - could save KNOC up to 25p a share as a quicker scheme of arrangement voting could be made.

The board are planning therefore to use Friday's interim results meeting to strengthen its defense against the bid by placing strong emphasis on 'near-term business developments' which it says have not been taken into consideration as yet.

Part of the bid defense revolves around a £220-£240 million package of North Sea assets which they recently acquired from Canadian company, Suncor Energy that it plans to develop and add 'substantial value' to the company.

KNOC on the other hand, believe that any new information has already been considered and would 'continued to be paid for' in 'full and fair value for any assets acquired through such auction processes'.

The Korean company does not believe it needs to add any further value to its cash offering.

Peter Hitchens, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said Dana could offer some positive developments from its Anne Marie well off the Faroe Islands but he says it could take a while before extensive results from that drilling programme can be revealed. Even when data is unveiled, Hitchens does not believe it will add a life-changing sum to Dana's share price.

"Basically they will have to pull a massive rabbit out of the hat at the interims to convince shareholders it is worth more," Hitchens said.

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