Australia's Origin rebuffs BG's 12-bln-dlr takeover bid

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia's Origin Energy on Tuesday formally urged shareholders to reject a 13.8-billion-dollar (12-billion-US) hostile takeover bid by Britain's BG Group.

Australia's second biggest energy retailer said the all-cash offer from global gas firm BG at 15.50 dollars per share undervalued the company and its prospects.

BG said in June it would go directly to Origin's shareholders after the board snubbed a friendly bid at the same price in May. The takeover would be one of the biggest by a foreign company of an Australian firm.

"Origin is a strongly performing, Australian integrated energy company with an impressive track record of growth," its chairman Kevin McCann said in a statement.

"Origin has developed the leading position in Coal...