Heritage shares up on takeover talk

Shares in exploration company Heritage Oil jumped more than 8 per cent yesterday on reports that it had rejected a £1.2 billion takeover approach from a Middle Eastern company.

The unnamed Abu Dhabi-based suitor is said to have offered 425p per share for Heritage in a letter to the firm. Heritage did not comment on the report.

The company's shares, which had been trading at up to 437p before the announcement in January that it had found gas but not oil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, were up 23.8p to close at 313.5p yesterday.