AFR article

Blackstone-backed Senrigan enters WestSide takeover

PUBLISHED: 6 hours 34 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 0 hour 37 MINUTES AGO PRINT EDITION: 04 Jul 2014

The battle for Queensland gas play WestSide Corporation has taken another twist, with Blackstone-based hedge fund Senrigan emerging as a substantial shareholder.
Only three days from the close of a 40¢-a-share takeover bid from China’s Landbridge Group Co, US-based Senrigan has bought 30.9 million WestSide shares worth 6.97 per cent of the company.
The purchases were made during a heavy trading day on Thursday, where WestSide shareholder New Hope Corp dumped its 70 million shares on-market.
Landbridge is understood to have bought about 30 million shares on Thursday at 40¢, while Senrigan appears to be the other buyer, also at 40¢ a share.
Traders are now wondering why Senrigan would be buying at 40¢ a share, and whether there could be another offer coming.
Senrigan’s buying comes after Morgan Stanley and its subsidiaries also emerged with a 5.53 per cent stake this week.
And all this after it looked like WestSide’s offer from Landbridge would lapse.
At stake is a $4.3 billion gas agreement that WestSide and its partner Mitsui have with Santos’s GLNG venture.
GLNG will buy gas in 2017 at about $9.28 a gigajoule, assuming benchmark crude oil prices around current levels of $US110 a barrel, from a joint venture half-owned by Westside.