The board of Canadian oil sands player UTS has turned down a sweetened C$829.8 million (US$684.2 million) offer from France-based oil company Total and told shareholders for the second time in a month the bid was too low.

The quoted market value of the company in Toronto is C$868 million.

Total’s was held up for scrutiny by the board against what its members say is the growth in value — by 30 percent since January 2009 — of the company’s Fort Hills oil sands holdings. They say Lease 421 alone is showing “rich oil sands” in 80 percent of new well bores.

UTS is debt-free and financially sound and the board suggested it was firmly in control in the face of Total’s "onslought".

“We have received strong support from our shareholders since Total launched its hostile bid in January,” said chairman Dennis Sharp. He pointed to newspaper reports citing statements from lead shareholders against saying “Yes” to Total.

“The revised bid in no way reflects improving industry fundamentals,” Sharp said.

He pointed to the impending merger of Suncor and Petro-Canada, partners at Fort Hills whose combined spending weight now works for UTS shareholders who have seen UTS’s stock slide to about a third of its value in August 2008, although many oil companies are down. The stock traded briskly Thursday before returning to its morning mark.

Sharp warned restructuring could still impact the company, and he said financial advisors were being consulted. He did not give details, but suggested asset-sales might be at hand.

Total’s bid for UTS is being watched closely in Canada, where many say too many companies of national worth have been given up to foreign control in recent years — 600 in 2008 alone, by some counts.

Last year, the board of another Canadian oil company, First Calgary Petroleums, recommended shareholders at first turn down requests for management changes before a newly constituted board recommended shareholders sell to Italian oil company Eni. As with Calgary-based Oilexco's North Sea business, financing burdens became to great for First Calgary at the credit crunch’s height, and once again an E&P overachiever was pried away from the fruits of its labours.

Tags: Fort Hills Energy, Total, UTS Energy Corp.