Infratil Ltd on Tuesday rejected a NZ$5.37 billion ($3.78 billion) takeover offer from AustralianSuper, terming the bid as too low and triggering an over 20% jump in shares of the New Zealand-based energy and transport infrastructure investor.
Infratil said it would not engage further with AustralianSuper, the largest pension fund in Australia, which had recently sweetened its cash plus stock offer to NZ$7.43 per share, a 22.2% premium to Infratil’s closing price on Tuesday.
The deal would have been New Zealand’s largest this year.
Shares of Infratil jumped 20.9% to a record high of NZ$7.35, just 8 cents off the bid price.
In October, when the A$190-billion pension giant first approached Infratil, it had offered NZ$6.40 per share.
“Both proposals were unsolicited and materially undervalue our significant renewable energy and digital infrastructure platforms,” Infratil Chief Executive Officer Marko Bogoievski said.
AustralianSuper did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The decision comes after Infratil on Monday said it was looking into selling its 65.5% stake in wind farm firm Tilt Renewables, which was worth around NZ$1.18 billion at Tuesday’s close.
The 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 5.2%, and Trustpower gained 1.6%.
Source: Reuters.com