Brookfield hedges its bets with back-pocket Origin takeover ploy
Brookfield is pulling out all stops in its quest to acquire Origin Energy — a sweetened deal and a Plan B to make it easier to seal the deal without major shareholder AustralianSuper.
With Brookfield’s $1.2 billion sweetener for Origin Energy failing to get major shareholder AustralianSuper over the line, the Canadian asset manager is hedging its bets with a Plan B takeover deal, should shareholders reject its $19.7 billion scheme of arrangement at their November 23 vote.
Buried in the fine print of Brookfields’ “best and final” $9.53 a share offer for Origin Energy tabled earlier today, is an option to launch an off-market takeover for the company if the scheme vote fails. This would require a 50.1% acceptance rate, much lower than the scheme which needs the blessing of 75% of shareholders.
Brookfield renewables managing director Luke Edwards said if the asset manager came back for a second bite of the cherry it would be offering a lower price than the original scheme deal, which shareholders would need to factor in when deciding which way to vote on the 23rd.
“Our first priority has been to acquire 100% and that's the preference but sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to face and when you’re in these situations you have to use all of the tools in the toolkit,” he told Capital Brief.
