Reuters reported that Australia's Pure Energy unanimously recommended shareholders accept Britain's BG Group's (BG.L) sweetened offer of AUD 995 million or AUD 8 per share, aimed at trumping a rival bid linked to Royal Dutch Shell.

Pure said in a statement that Pure's independent directors and at least two key stakeholders plan to accept the offer within seven days in the absence of a higher one.

BG raised its offer for the Australian coal seam gas firm by 25%, potentially igniting a bidding war with Shell and other rivals keen to buy Pure to secure feedstock for liquefied natural gas projects.

BG trumped an offer from Shell's Australian partner Arrow Energy Ltd.

Pure said key shareholders Tom Fontaine and Karl Meade, which own 5 percent and 3 percent of Pure's stock respectively, will accept BG's offer, also on condition no higher one is proposed.

Pure values BG's offer at 11% above the AUD 7.18 per share implied value of Arrow's offer of USD 3 and 1.57 of its shares for every Pure share.

Global oil giants, including US major ConocoPhillips and Malaysia's Petronas have poured about AUD 20 billion into Australia's coal seam gas companies since last year to secure reserves to feed a global rise in LNG demand.

(Sourced from Reuters)