BG to buy Queensland Gas for £2.17 billion
Gas producer BG Group launched a A$5.6 billion (2.17 billion pound) friendly takeover bid for Australia's Queensland Gas(QGC), its latest effort to boost its position in Asia's fast-growing natural gas market.
Centrica profits rise 40%"It's a good deal and a fair price for QGC. It is definitely hard to see anyone coming over the top for QGC," said Ivor Ries, senior analyst at EL & C Baillieu Stockbroking.
BG, which acquired a near-10 percent stake in QGC in February, offered to pay A$5.75 each for the shares it didn't already own, an 80 percent premium to QGC's last traded price, the two firms said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
BG will also buy a 22 percent stake in QGC held by Australia's top energy retailer AGL Energy, with AGL set to receive A$1.18 billion.
QGC shares jumped 80 percent on resuming trade to match the offer price, having been placed on a trading halt last Friday pending the announcement.
QGC said its voting directors had unanimously recommended BG's bid and that total acceptances, as well as declared acceptance intentions, from directors and institutional investors, would give BG a 46.2 percent stake in the firm.
The deal comes less than two months after BG abandoned its A$13.8 billion hostile bid for Australia's second-largest energy retailer Origin Energy Ltd, which holds the country's largest amount of coal seam gas reserves.
"Some shareholders may have preferred to see the fruition of the proposed LNG (liquefied natural gas) project but that's a long wait and the current financial crisis is giving too much uncertainty," Ries added.
BG said its offer for QGC was final in the absence of a higher competing bid.
AGL was up 4.55 percent at A$14.01 by 2:47 a.m. British time, after touching a near three-week high of A$14.19, while BG fell 7.4 percent in London trading yesterday.
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