	takeover battle for dome petroleum begins a takeover battle began today for debt burdened dome petroleum ltd dmp mo as transcanada pipelines ltd trp to announced a billion dlr offer and dome said it is continuing talks with other possible buyers companies mentioned in market speculation as potential buyers for dome include imperial oil ltd imo a which is pct owned by exxon corp xon n pancanadian petroleum ltd which is pct owned by the conglomerate canadian pacific ltd cp n and british petroleum co plc bp l along with the transcanada offer dome has had another proposal from a substantial company and discussions with a third company which could lead to an offer dome said in a statement the statement confirmed dome received transcanada s bid but did not identify the companies involved in talks transcanada canada s largest natural gas pipeline operator said it is offering dome a package of cash common and preferred shares and shares in a new subsidiary which would own and operate dome s assets transcanada said the offer is to dome management not to shareholders dome has massive oil and gas landholdings in canada totalling mln acres of which mln have been developed it also has tax credits worth about billion dlrs dome s statement said the transcanada announcement violated the terms and spirit of a confidentiality agreement entered into with prospective purchasers and was apparently timed to prevent dome from considering other proposals it said the transcanada bid seems to require favourable and substantial taxation concessions from the federal and provincial governments but dome added that its management and financial advisers will evaluate all proposals transcanada chief financial officer h neil nichols said he was surprised at the vehemence of dome s statement and denied that transcanada was trying to usurp other bids i find dome s statement very bothersome once the board made the decision to authorise the proposal it had a legal obligation to announce it he said nichols said he did not know the identity of the other bidders or the terms of other offers dome common shares closed at dlrs on friday on the toronto stock exchange the preferred class a stock closed at dlrs common stock traded as high as dlrs in reuter 
