QIC’s acquisition proposal gets green light from Pacific Energy board
The board of Pacific Energy has announced it will unanimously recommend its shareholders vote in favour of the scheme under which QIC’s subsidiary will acquire the firm for total consideration of $0.975 per share.
Pacific Energy and alternative specialist manager QIC’s subsidiary, QGIF Swan Bidco announced it would enter into a scheme implementation deed and, in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert’s approval, the board confirmed that they intended to vote all the Pacific Energy shares that they held or controlled in favour of the scheme.
Following this, Pacific Energy’s shareholders would be receiving $0.975 per share in cash, which would consist of $0.96 per share to be paid by QIC and a final $0.015 per share fully franked dividend intended to be paid by the company.
Additionally, under the terms of the scheme, Pacific Energy may also declare and pay a special dividend before the implementation date of the scheme which valued its equity at $422 million and an implied enterprise value of $487 million, it said.
Further to that, there would be no expected changes to the leadership of Pacific Energy and its wholly owned subsidiaries, including Kalgoorlie Energy’s operations and Contract Power.
“As a long-term investor and experienced partner to infrastructure businesses, we are attracted to the quality of the Pacific Energy business and its position in the decentralised electricity sub-sector,” QIC’s head of global infrastructure, Ross Israel, said.
“Pacific Energy diversifies the wider QIC Global infrastructure Fund portfolio and has a risk-return profile consistent with our clients’ requirements.”
According to Pacific Energy’s chairman, Cliff Lawrenson, the proposal offered a significant premium for shareholders and recognised the position his firm had built as the build-own-operate power supplier to the mining industry and remote townships in Western Australia.
QGIF Swan Bidco is a subsidiary of funds managed or advised by QIC Private Capital, which is wholly owned by QIC, one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia and a specialist manager in alternatives offering infrastructure, real estate, private capital, liquid strategies and multi-asset investments.
QIC Global Infrastructure is a long-term infrastructure investor with an active management approach and a proven, 12-year track record, and manages AU$12.3 billion across 14 global direct investments.
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