illus. courtesy Nova Chem

The Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Investment Co., or IPIC, has successfully bid for former Canadian pipeline company, now downstream firm Nova Chemicals Corp., the latest Canada-based energy-related company to give in to financial pressures.

The winning $499 million bid had been resisted, and Nova had once turned it down, but IPIC agreed to takeover Nova’s debt in a deal worth over $2.2 billion. Nova was understood to be cash-strapped after assuming sky high raw materials costs and planning outputs accordingly.

The US$14 billion United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund snapped up Nova — the former Alberta Gas Trunk Line Co. — just as gas from the Canadian Arctic looks set to boost the product line of the company’s four-square-kilometre Alberta ethylene plant.

Last year, North Sea bright ligth Oilexco sought creditor protection while First Calgary Petroleums went to Eni at the "height" of the credit crunch. Oilexco had found the North Sea's biggest oilfields this decade, and First Calgary had uncovered a vast sea of hydrocarbons beneath the sands of Algeria.

Canada "lost" some 600 companies to foreign control in 2008, with much business and technical talent going underfunded and the buying power of Canadians slips. Conservative Canadian banks have, meanwhile, have slipped nearly entirely free of recent world disasters of finance.

Tags: IPIC