Infigen Nudges Shareholders to Accept $864 mn Takeover bid From Iberdrola

The board of Australian wind farm operator Infigen is recommending that shareholders accept an AUD 864 million takeover bid from Spanish utility Iberdrola.

The board of Australian wind farm operator Infigen is recommending that shareholders accept an AUD 864 million takeover bid from Spanish utility Iberdrola. The recommendation came after Iberdrola waived conditions for its off-market bid, a day after raising its offer to 89 cents per share.

“The Iberdrola Offer is a compelling opportunity for Infigen security holders to provide liquidity and attractive value by comparison to the market price history of Infigen securities at any time prior to Iberdrola Australia’s offer,” the company said.

UAC Energy, a unit of Philippines conglomerate Ayala Corp on June 29, 2020, raised its rival offer for Infigen to 86 cents per share and made it unconditional, but Infigen says it believes the defeating conditions attached to Iberdrola’s bid are capable of satisfaction.

Iberdrola’s offer is conditional on receiving Foreign Investment Board Approval and half of all shareholders accepting the offer.

“Iberdrola Australia is pleased with the progress FIRB has made in processing its application for approval and is very confident of receiving approval in a timely manner,” the company said.

Infigen has seven wind farms and a large pipeline of projects across Australia.

Iberdrola, a Spanish corporation with a market capitalisation of USD 105.4 billion, calls itself the world’s leading private electricity group by customer numbers, as well as the number one producer of wind power.

If the deal goes through, Infigen will join a host of other acquisitions the Spanish utility has been making over the last couple of months.

In 2020, Iberdrola has committed to making record investments of 10 billion euros, and the agreement in Australia marks the fifth significant advance in renewables for the company during the current COVID-19 crisis.

Earlier this month the company had announced the acquisition of projects with the renewables company Svea Vind Offshore AB (SVO) for the future development of up to 9 GW of offshore wind energy capacity in Sweden. This followed the company’s decision to Increase its stake in a major offshore wind farm in France (the EUR 2.4 billion 496 MW Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in France, stake increased from 70 percent to 100 percent) and the acquisition of French renewable energy firm Aalto Power for EUR 100 million.