نوشته‌شده در

Australia’s AGL Energy rebuffs sweetened $4 bln bid from Brookfield-led team

Australia’s AGL Energy rebuffs sweetened $4 bln bid from Brookfield-led team

AGL Energy’s Liddell coal-fired power station is pictured in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, Australia, April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jason ReedRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister

  • New offer pitched at 15% premium to pre-bid price
  • AGL says demerger offers better value to shareholders
  • AGL shares slip but hold above pre-bid price

MELBOURNE, March 7 (Reuters) – Australia’s AGL Energy confirmed on Monday it rejected a sweetened A$5.4 billion ($4.0 billion) takeover proposal from tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO), saying it still undervalued Australia’s top power producer.Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes said they had walked away, leaving AGL to pursue plans to split its coal-fired power business from its energy retail business. AGL is Australia’s biggest carbon emitter and the consortium had planned to speed up the closure of its coal-fired power plants.”We are no longer engaged,” a Brookfield spokesperson said, declining to comment further.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThe revised proposal was pitched at A$8.25 a share, a 15% premium to AGL’s share price on Feb. 18, ahead of a first surprise approach from the Brookfield-led consortium at A$7.50 a share. The premium above AGL’s close last Friday.AGL’s shares fell 1.2% to A$7.34 on Monday but stayed above their pre-bid price.AGL is looking to split into two companies called Accel and AGL Australia following a 75% slump in the group’s value over the past five years, hammered by an influx of cheap solar and wind power and government pressure on utilities to slash power prices to households.Chief Executive Graeme Hunt said the demerged businesses would both have growth prospects in the shift to cleaner energy, with the biggest energy retail customer base in AGL Australia and valuable energy sites with 2.7 gigawatts of projects in the Accel business.”We see that the combined value of both entities is higher than the value of the company as it stands today, but none of that has been reflected in the offer that we received,” Hunt told Reuters.Cannon-Brookes said on Twitter the demerger path “was a terrible outcome for shareholders, taxpayers, customers, Australia and the planet we all share”.Fund managers who have shunned AGL’s shares over the past few years said it was hard to put a value on its demerger plan in a market that faces a range of challenges in the energy transition.Morgan Stanley raised its price target AGL to A$7.50 from A$6.88 on Friday and said there was potential for a 25% to 30% rise in a scenario in which all its coal-fired plants are closed by 2030 and it invests in 10 GW of renewables and back-up capacity.($1 = 1.3570 Australian dollars)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

نوشته‌شده در

Australia’s AGL Energy rejects $3.5 bln offer, backs decision to split

Australia’s AGL Energy rejects $3.5 bln offer, backs decision to split

  • Australia’s 2nd richest man, Canada’s Brookfield made joint bid
  • Offer was at a 4.7% premium to AGL’s last close
  • AGL says demerger plans on track

Feb 21 (Reuters) – Australian power producer AGL Energy Ltd on Monday rejected a $3.54 billion takeover offer from billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO) in favour of its plan of splitting in two this year.AGL said the A$7.50 apiece proposal from Cannon-Brookes, Australia’s second-richest man and co-founder of software firm Atlassian, and the Canadian buyout group was a 4.7% premium to the stock’s Friday close and undervalued it.”The proposal does not offer an adequate premium for a change of control and is not in the best interests of AGL Energy shareholders,” AGL Chairman Peter Botten said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThe unsolicited cash proposal with an option for AGL shareholders to elect a scrip alternative also provided limited other information about how the deal would be structured, Botten said.Cannon-Brookes’ investment vehicle, Grok Ventures, and Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The profits and value of AGL, Australia’s biggest polluter, have shrunk on government pressure to cut retail rates, waning investor appetite for coal-fired power and an influx of solar and wind energy into the grid.The Australian Financial Review had reported on Sunday that the parties made a joint bid for AGL which included plans to halt its proposed split into a bulk power generator and a carbon-neutral energy retailer. AGL plans to re-brand as Accel Energy and hold the company’s coal-fired power plants and wind farm contracts. It would spin off AGL Australia Ltd, the country’s biggest retailer of electricity and gas, into a separately listed company. read more AGL said earlier this month it had made significant progress in its demerger plans and repeated on Monday that the split was on track to be completed by June. “The board is confident that the demerger will create a strong future for both parts of the business,” Botten said.($1 = 1.3961 Australian dollars)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Harish Sridharan and Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .