Nexen shareholders approve takeover by CNOOC

Nexen shareholders on Thursday overwhelmingly approved Chinese state-owned energy giant CNOOC's $15.1 billion takeover bid for the Canadian oil and gas company. A new public opinion poll, however, shows Canadians strongly opposed to the deal, which has yet to be approved by regulators. The proposed takeover would be China's largest foreign investment and its largest energy deal, according to data firm Dealogic. "The arrangement was approved by approximately 99 percent of the votes cast by Nexen common shareholders and approximately 87 percent of the votes cast by Nexen preferred shareholders at the special meeting held on September 20, 2012," said a Nexen statement. An Abacus Data poll conducted for the Sun newspaper group, however, found 69 percent of Canadians oppose the takeover. Only eight percent said they want to see Ottawa greenlight the deal. "The gut reaction of the public is just simply 'no'," pollster David Coletto told Sun News. About 15 percent of respondents cited China's poor human rights record in rejecting the deal, while others oppose it "on strategic grounds, that this is not a resource we should be giving up to foreign companies -- any foreign company," Coletto said. The Abacus Data survey with a 2.9 percent margin of error was conducted online with 1,208 participants between September 14 and 18.