Shares of Continental Resources Inc. CLR, -3.18% rallied 8.3% in premarket trading Monday, after the oil producer announced an agreement to be acquired by Omega Acquisition Inc., which is owned by the company’s founder Harold Hamm, in a deal that values the company at nearly $27 billion. Under terms of the deal, Omega will launch a tender offer to buy Continental’s stock at $74.28 a share, which represents an 8.9% premium to Friday’s closing price of $68.22. The bid is also 6.1% above what Hamm offered to pay in June, when he said he’d pay $70 a share to take the company private. With 363.0 million shares outstanding as of July 22, the $74.28-per share bid values the company at $26.96 billion. The deal is expected to close before Dec. 31, 2022. The stock, which hasn’t closed at or above $74.28 since September 2014, has run up 52.4% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -2.37% has dropped 24.8%.
