AGL has rejected a revised unsolicited proposal from a consortium led by Brookfield to acquire all shares in AGL for $8.25 per share by way of a scheme of arrangement.
The AGL board considers the revised unsolicited proposal to be “still well below both the fair value of the company on a charge of control basis and relive to the expected value of the proposed demerger,” the company said in a statement.
The revised proposal represents a 15.2 per cent premium to the closing price of $7.16 on 18 February 2022
AGL chairman Peter Botten said the proposal “continues to ignore” the opportunity that shareholders have through the proposed demerger.
“It also ignores the momentum we have recently seen in the business through our solid half year result, strong progress on the demerger, strong interest in our Energy Transition Investment Partnership and the improvements we are seeing in forward wholesale prices,” said Botten.
Brookfield and Mike Cannon-Brookes have reportedly dropped the $5.5 billion takeover (valued at more than $8 billion including debt) proposal following the board’s swift rejection.
The plan by Brookfield and Grok would have seen the partners buy AGL and close down its coal-fired power plants much earlier than AGL envisages, making the country’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter carbon neutral by 2035.
AGL chief executive Graeme Hunt plans to split AGL into a retail business and an electricity generation business.
AGL said the proposed demerger will create a strong future for bot divisions, enabling its transition towards a decarbonised future.
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