A consortium consisting of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management and a unit of US-based energy investor EIG has entered into a binding deal to buy Australian energy firm and APLNG shareholder, Origin.
Brookfield and EIG’s LNG unit MidOcean Energy first made an offer in August last year to acquire Origin for A$7.95 cash per share. Subsequently, they raised the offer to A$9.00 cash per share in November last year, and revised this offer again to A$8.90 per share in February this year.
Now the consortium entered into a scheme implementation deed with Origin, according to a joint statement released on Monday.
The scheme values Origin at an enterprise value of A$18.7 billion ($12.4 billion).
Also, the purchase price of A$8.91 per share represents a 53.4 percent premium to the company’s unaffected share price, the statement said.
Brookfield Renewable Partners entered the deal together with its institutional partners and global institutional investors GIC and Temasek.
“The Origin board has stated that it is unanimously recommending that Origin shareholders vote in favor of the scheme in the absence of a superior proposal, and subject to an independent expert concluding the scheme is in the best interests of shareholders,” the partners said.
APLNG
Upon closing of the transaction, Brookfield, its institutional partners and investors will own Origin’s energy markets business, Australia’s largest integrated power generator and energy retailer.
In addition to its institutional and investor partners, Brookfield is also working with Reliance Industries as a strategic partner to assess areas of collaboration in renewable energy in the context of the transaction, it said.
Moreover, EIG’s MidOcean will separately own Origin’s integrated gas segment including its upstream gas interests and the 27.5 percent stake in Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG).
ConocoPhillips has a 47.5 percent share in the APLNG project but it also operates the 9 mtpa LNG export facility on Curtis Island near Gladstone and the export sales business.
Origin operates APLNG’s gas fields and holds a 27.5 percent share. China’s Sinopec owns a 25 percent share in APLNG as well.
MidOcean has entered into an agreement to on-sell a 2.49 percent interest in APLNG to ConocoPhillips, while the latter also intends to take over upstream operatorship of APLNG.
