In this WSJ ($) op-ed, Chevron Corporation CEO David O’Reilly makes the case to Unocal Corp. shareholders for choosing Chevron’s lower bid for the company over the China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s higher bid (here are the previous posts on the Chevron and CNOOC battle over Unocal).
Mr. O’Reilly does a reasonably good job in making his case. His main point is that Chevron’s bid is a sure thing that is much further along in the approval process than the CNOOC bid. In short, he advises Unocal shareholders to take the slightly smaller Chevron bird in the hand rather than the bigger CNOOC one in the bush.
But in making his case, Mr. O’Reilly veers off course with his second argument:

The second critical issue is in the arena of public policy. For the U.S. government, the proposal by Cnooc presents fundamental questions about fair trade that have profound implications for all U.S. businesses. Contrary to claims by Cnooc, the company’s offer is simply not a commercial transaction. The company is 70% owned by the Chinese government and is relying on large subsidies in the form of government loans at below-market rates to finance its $18.5 billion offer. A conservative analysis shows that the value of these subsidies is at least $2.6 billion or $10 per Unocal share. These terms are simply not available to commercial companies operating in the open market. If Cnooc were to finance its offer on truly commercial terms available to most non-government owned corporations, as Chevron is, it simply couldn’t make a competitive bid.

Stated another way, Mr. O’Reilly reasons that Unocal shareholders should reject the higher CNOOC bid because CNOOC’s bank (i.e., the Chinese government) is willing to loan the company too much money.
My sense is that this argument might work on U.S. Congressmen, many of whom tend to gravitate toward dubious mercantilist policies. However, arguing to Unocal shareholders that they should reject the CNOOC bid because CNOOC’s bank is willing to loan CNOOC so much money that the company can overpay the Unocal shareholders strikes me as a reason for Unocal shareholders to embrace the CNOOC bid, not reject it.