Thursday 22 October 2009

Split looms over gas company bid

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Tuesday 20/10/2009 Page: 45

Investors of landfill gas firm Energy Developments including New Zealand infrastructure investment fund Infratil and BT Investment Management may split on whether to accept a bid that values it at $2.65 per share, offered by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners.

The bid contrasts with the $2.80 offer from Archer Capital in August, which was rejected by the board. Portfolio manager Paul Hannan at BT Investments said the stock 'is worth a lot more than $2.65'. Since June, ED has been considering offloading the assets; there were rumours that ED was in talks with UK private equity fund 3i on the deal. In June, Infratil said it granted a call option to Archer Capital to sell off a part of its 32% holding, that contains 19.99%. Investors Mutual has 13.4% holding.

The federal government revealed that it would take into account of energy from the company's portfolio of landfill and coal gas towards its 20% renewable energy target and aid companies, including ED, to shift from state schemes in a bid to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

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