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Hess shareholder vote on Chevron offer quickly met bulk needed -filing.

Hess shareholders cast 157.6 million ' yes' votes in favor of its sale to Chevron, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday revealed, more than 3 million more than required to pass.

Tuesday's vote cleared one hurdle for the $53 billion deal, which is still under evaluation by U.S. regulators and involved in an arbitration battle with Exxon and CNOOC, Hess' partners in a profitable Guyana oil-production joint venture.

Investor approval needed a yes vote by a bulk of Hess's 308 million shares outstanding, or about 154 million shares. The triumph for Hess came regardless of a campaign by some investors to advise abstention votes to give more time for the outcome of the Exxon-CNOOC arbitration to be chosen.

The company did not reveal any votes to adjourn the conference, saying the proposition was not put forth since there sufficed votes in favor of the offer.

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services had advised shareholders vote to abstain. ISS also got in touch with Hess to use its owners a monetary incentive offered the delay implied they would be without the higher dividend readily available to Chevron shareholders.

Friday's securities filing was the very first time the variety of votes cast was revealed.

Some 19.7 million shares were cast versus the deal and another 72.8 million stayed away.

Hess shareholders stopped working to authorize a non-binding vote on executive compensation under the merger. They cast 112.9 million shares in favor of the pay plan and 109.9 million votes versus it. Some 27 million shares avoided the pay proposal, which needed a bulk of all votes cast to be approved.

(source: Reuters)