LNG

Origin Energy, the Australian upstream supplier to the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland facing a A$18.4 billion (US$12.3 billion) buyout offer from a two-firm consortium led by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management, said the due diligence on the deal was largely completed.

Origin said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it was continuing its “active engagement” with Brookfield and consortium partner MidOcean Energy, an LNG company formed and managed by US-based energy investor EIG.

“Origin advises that the Consortium has substantially completed due diligence and active engagement continues on a non-exclusive basis in relation to the submission of a binding proposal,” said Origin.

The Sydney-based company noted that any binding proposal would be subject to a number of conditions, including approval by Australian regulators.

“At this stage, shareholders do not need to take any action and Origin will continue to keep shareholders updated in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations,” said the company.

Origin’s business comprises Integrated Gas with its feed-gas sales to Australia-Pacific LNG and a utilities and domestic power markets unit, the Energy Markets division.

This is made up of retail and wholesale electricity sales and natural gas supplies to the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Targeted

The bid for Origin from Brookfield comes after its offer in 2022 to buy Australia's leading utility, AGL Energy, was rejected.

The Origin buy-out proposal was made through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which is co-run by Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England.

Under the proposal to acquire Origin, Brookfield would take over the company’s Energy Markets business, while MidOcean Energy, in the form of EIG, would take control of Origin's Integrated Gas business, including its 27.5 percent stake in APLNG.

The APLNG plant stake that would go to EIG’s MidOcean under the Origin buy-out is a supplier to China and one of its shareholders is China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec.

Origin is the main upstream operator for coal-seam gas supply to the facility while US major ConocoPhillips is the plant operator.

APLNG came on stream in 2016 and has two liquefaction Trains with total nameplate capacity of around 9 million tonnes per annum with about 7 MTPA going to China.

The plant sits alongside two other CSG-to-LNG facilities on Curtis Island, the Shell-run Queensland Curtis LNG plant and the Gladstone plant, operated by Santos.

AGL Energy, the largest Australian power company whose plans for an LNG import terminal in the state of Victoria were thwarted by regulators and which fought off takeover interest from various quarters, saw its shares tumble 10 percent after very disappointing results and doubts on strategy.

March 8 (LNGJ) - AGL Energy, the Australian utility whose plans for an LNG import terminal in the state of Victoria were thwarted by regulators, has rejected an unsolicited improved bid from Brookfield Asset Management of Canada and one of Australia’s wealthiest individuals.

   The latest offer from Brookfield and Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is to seek to acquire AGL for $8.25 per share, up from $7.50 per share last month which had valued the company at A$4.93 billion (US$3.54Bln). “The revised unsolicited proposal continues to ignore the opportunity that AGL Energy shareholders have through our proposed demerger to realise potential future value,” said AGL Chairman Peter Botten.

AGL Energy, the Australian utility whose plans for an LNG import terminal in the state of Victoria were thwarted by regulators, has rejected an unsolicited joint bid of over US$3.5 billion from Brookfield Asset Management of Canada and one of Australia’s wealthiest individuals.

AGL Energy, the leading Australian gas and power supplier forced to cease any further development of the proposed Crib Point LNG import project in the southern state of Victoria, has signed pipeline natural gas supply agreements with Cooper Energy.

Leading Australian gas and power supplier AGL Energy has confirmed it will cease any further development of the proposed Crib Point LNG import project in the southern state of Victoria as it also pursues a corporate overhaul by spinning off infrastructure assets.

Leading Australian gas and power supplier AGL Energy with LNG import plans for south Australia has decided to split into two companies, one holding the assets of the retail electricity and gas business and another owning the infrastructure such as power plants.

Leading Australian utility company AGL Energy posted a large fiscal first-half loss due to impairments but in post-earnings statements the company said it expected to make a final investment decision soon on the liquefied natural gas import project at Crib Point in the southeast Australian state of Victoria.

Australia's AGL Energy has pushed its case for regulatory approval for its liquefied natural gas import project at Crib Point in southeast Australian in the largest ever environmental assessment inquiry held in the state of Victoria.

Hoegh LNG, the Norwegian LNG carrier fleet operator and floating import terminal project developer, reported stable third-quarter profits as one of its vessels resumed a floating import role at the port of Tianjin in northeast China, while the company was also in line for at least seven other ventures in Australia, the Indian Subcontinent and the Philippines.