AGL Energy has rejected a sweetened $8.25 apiece takeover bid from a consortium led by Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, saying it continued to undervalue the power producer.
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The revised deal was valued at $5.43 billion, topping a prior bid of $3.54 billion, which was rejected by the board on February 21.
AGL Energy chair Peter Botten said the revised bid “continues to ignore the opportunity that shareholders have through our proposed demerger.”
AGL deemed the revised proposal “materially the same” as the unsolicited bid rejected by the board on February 21, citing similar reasons.
The company said it would continue to pursue and intends to recommend shareholders approve the previously announced demerger.
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Tweets by Cannon-Brookes indicated he and Brookfield would abandon their takeover plans, saying they were “putting their pens down”, and described the rejection as a “terrible outcome”.
