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One of Australia’s most significant publicly listed infrastructure companies, Transurban, has received and rejected an offer from two of Canada’s largest superannuation fund entities (the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers Pension Board) that the Canadian funds have described as “final”.
Transurban announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today receipt of a letter in which the big Canadian entities set out “the terms of a possible transaction that would involve an acquisition of the entire issued capital of the Transurban Group.”
However, the letter stated that the proposal was conditional on Transurban discontinuing its proposed capital raising announced on Monday.
The Canadian funds first initiated their bid to gain control of Transurban in October, last year — something that prompted the chairman of the Cooper Review, Jeremy Cooper, to suggest Australian superannuation funds should be able to attain sufficient scale to pursue similar transactions.
The Canadian proposal involves an all-cash offer to Transurban security holders valued at $5.57 per Transurban stapled security, valuing the company at $13.8 billion.
The letter stated that the offer represented “a compelling premium over undisturbed trading prices of Transurban securities.
The Transurban board has rejected the Canadian proposals on that basis that they did not offer sufficient value and certainty to the company.
