EXI.L Share News (EXI)

Shares in Exillon Energy fell on Thursday, having jumped sharply since the start of the week on news of two possible bids from Russian oligarchs. The FTSE 250-listed oil explorer, which is owned by Kazakh founder Maksat Arip, said late on Wednesday that it had ended its formal sale process but would continue to work on delivering a full takeover offer. Gutseriev, founder and president of Russneft, bought his stake in mid November.Exillon noted in a statement that given the announcements from companies owned by Russian businessmen Alexei Khotin and Mikhail Gutseriev that they were pondering potential bids, the company urged its shareholders to "take no action" yet.Earlier in the week Gutseriev's Hanberg Finance, already a 14.9% shareholder in Exillon, stated it was considering making an offer to acquire the remaining shares in the company.But on Wednesday Khotin's Seneal International Agency revealed it had bought a 30% stake in Exillon from Arip at a premium 379p and said it was reviewing potential opportunities that included the possibility of making an offer for Exillon.Arip, formerly thought to be a potential bidder for the rest of the company he floated four years ago at 153p a share, had his UK assets frozen by the High Court earlier this year for fraud allegations that he has denied.Shares in Exillon, which had coasted along since the start of the year around 160p, began to climb in September as rumours emerged, before making a sharp leap to 328p at Wednesday's close.On Thursday they were down 9.1% to 297.88p at 15:30.OH