Australian Super’s stalking of New Zealand energy infrastructure group Infratil Ltd continued with second cash and shares offer yesterday that the Kiwi company knocked back as being too cheap.
Australian Super offered NZ$5.37 billion ($3.78 billion) in cash and shares valuing Infratil shares at $NZ7.43, up $NZ1.03 from the first offer last October of $NZ6.40 a share.
Despite describing the offer as being too low the new offer saw a 19% plus jump in the Infratil share price to $NZ7.25 at the close.
Infratil said it would not engage further with AustralianSuper.
AustralianSuper’s latest proposal offered each Infratil shareholder NZ$5.79 in cash and 0.2210 shares of Trustpower Ltd, in which Infratil is the largest shareholder. Tilt Renewables shares climbed 17.4%, and Trustpower gained 5.6%.
“Both proposals were unsolicited and materially undervalue our significant renewable energy and digital infrastructure platforms,” Infratil Chief Executive Officer Marko Bogoievski said on Wednesday.
The new bid came after Infratil said on Monday it was looking into selling its 65.5% stake in wind farm firm Tilt Renewables, which was worth around $NZ1.18 billion.
Tilt seems to be the big attraction for Australian Super and the review by Infratil seems to have been a reaction to Australian Super’s stalking.
Following the construction of its Waipipi wind farm, Tilt will have 343 operating turbines across nine wind farms in Australia and New Zealand, with a total installed capacity of 836 megawatts.
