This story was first published on 17 June 2020 when Iberdrola first bid to take over Infigen Energy Limited and Infigen Energy RE Limited. It was updated on 29 June to reflect increased offers from both Iberdrola and rival bidder UAC Energy Holding, on 16 July when Iberdrola waived conditions attached to the order听and again when Iberdrola took control of Infigen.
Iberdrola has taken control of Australian clean energy developer Infigen following a bidding war against a Filipino-Hong Kong joint venture听 (JV).
The Spain-based utility's investment in Infigen has now obtained a majority (52.75%) voting stake, giving it effective control of the Australian developer.
Its takeover of A$0.92 (US$0.66) per stapled security is scheduled to close on 19 August.
Earlier this month, Iberdrola waived the last of the conditions attached to its public takeover 听for all stapled securities issued by Infigen Energy Limited and Infigen Energy RE Limited. Stapled securities consist of two or more securities that are contractually bound to form a single saleable unit.
With a majority of voting rights, Iberdrola can now nominate a majority of board members to Infigen Energy Limited and Infigen Energy RE Limited, as long as there are two independent directors on the boards until Iberdrola acquires all of the Infigen stapled securities.
Iberdrola had raised its bid from A$0.86 to A$0.92 per share, while UAC Energy Holdings 鈥 a joint venture of Philippines-based conglomerate Ayala Corporation鈥檚 AC Energy and Hong-Kong based UPC Renewables 鈥 increased its offer from A$0.80 to A$0.86 per share and removed previously attached due diligence and disclosure conditions.
Infigen鈥檚 Board has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept Iberdrola's offer 鈥渋n the absence of a superior proposal鈥.
Iberdrola鈥檚 revised bid of A$0.92 per share is 82% higher than the three-month volume-weighted average price of Infigen securities prior to a 3 June takeover bid by UAC. It is also 6.9% higher than UAC鈥檚 latest bid.
Infigen鈥檚 largest shareholder 鈥 the Children鈥檚 Investment Fund Management 鈥 had entered into a pre-bid acceptance agreement, whereby it would sell 20% of Infigen stapled securities to Iberdrola Australia. It is not clear yet how the increased bids will affect this agreement.
An Iberdrola spokesperson explained: "Acquiring Infigen Energy will enable Iberdrola to tighten its hold on the new and highly relevant market that Australia represents, being a priority market for the group since it announced plans to launch there earlier this year."
Iberdrola is developing the 320MW Port Augusta wind-solar hybrid project in South Australia.
Post-pandemic investment
Earlier this year, Iberdrola pledged to invest 鈧10 billion as part of its coronavirus recovery plans in 2020, and has since made acquisitions in France听补苍诲 Sweden, and set its sights on an offshore wind pipeline in Poland.
Infigen owns 670MW of operational onshore wind, 268MW of conventional generation and energy storage firming assets. The developer has 246MW of additional renewable capacity from third parties contracted through offtake power purchase agreements and a 1GW-plus portfolio of wind and solar projects in various stages of development.
It expects听Ebitda and net revenue for the 2021 fiscal year to be materially lower than in 2002 due to lower electricity prices resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, it stated.听
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