Battle for Australian energy player Hastings Diversified hots up
16 May 2012
The battle for Australian energy infrastructure player Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund has heated up after receipt of a conditional takeover bid valuing it at $1.25 billion.
Pipeline Partners Australia consortium, which includes Canada's Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and the Hastings-managed Utilities Trust of Australia, bid $2.35 per share, which pushed the stock up 12.3 per cent to a three year-high of $2.37 a share.
Hastings had agreed to due diligence by the consortium for a 45-day period.
A condition of the proposal calls for its acceptance by at least 70 per cent of all Hastings shareholders for it to go ahead.
The acceptance condition means that the APA Group, which holds a 20.7-per cent stake in Hastings Diversified, cannot block the takeover.
APA has come out with a scrip-and-cash offer of $2.06 a share based on APA's currently traded price of $4.95, valuing Hastings at $1.09 billion.
APA has offered to put up Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System for sale in hopes of winning regulatory approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) for the acquisition.
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