Australia’s Pacific Energy Ltd said that suitor QIC Private Capital had raised its initial bid to value the power generator at about A$466.7 million ($320.9 million), matching a rival consortium’s recent offer for the company.
In the sweetened offer, a unit of QIC proposed to pay A$1.085 per Pacific share, Pacific said in a statement on Friday.
The bid matches what a consortium comprising Australian fund manager Infrastructure Capital Group and Canada’s OPTrust offered to pay for Pacific earlier this week.
The fresh offer price represents a discount of 1.1% to the last closing price of Pacific’s stock on Sept. 12, by which time its shares had already surged following the rival offer.
QIC had initially offered A$0.975 per share in late July.
Pacific also added that if a break fee of A$2.5 million is not paid to the consortium, QIC has promised to pay an additional 0.5 cents per share to shareholders.
Pacific has entered a deed which stipulates that the power generator would have to pay the consortium the break fee if a deal was not struck by Sept. 17.
Earlier in the day, the Australian Government Takeovers Panel said it received an application from QIC which sought to set aside the break fee condition.
(By Rashmi Ashok; Editing by Mark Potter and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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