Energy leading Aussie M&A
THE mergers and acquisitions market has been a busy one in the oil and gas industry of late, with the soon-to-be-completed takeover of Lattice Energy by Beach Energy and bidding for AWE unexpectedly resolved by Mitsui this morning.
That has been supported by independent firm Mergermarket, which has confirmed that the minerals, energy and utilities is the lead sector for M&A for the first time, beating transport, with 77 deals worth $37.1 billion, a 56.7% increase over the previous year.
The Acuris subsidiary has also noted that Australian M&A is galloping ahead more generally.
"A consortium led by Cheung Kong Property to acquire Duet Group was the top deal for this sector with a value of $13.1 billion," analyst Ken Chan wrote.
RBC Capital Markets said late last year that M&A is increasingly Chinese-led or backed in what the bank sees as a regional gas aggregation strategy with three regions of Australia now connected to Asian Basin markets via established LNG infrastructure.
Gladstone LNG operator Santos was the target of Chinese investment, which took strong positions in the former last year with Hony Capital and ENN Group taking stakes that added up to just short of the 15% test point under the Foreign Takeovers Act.
More recently Santos was again a target, with private US Harbour Energy, led by a former Shell executive angling for the established Adelaide oiler with an $11 billion bid.
But the largest moves Mergermarket has noted over the year are led by the $7.6 billion
50.4% stake in Endeavour Energy bought by British Columbia Investment Management Corporation-led consortium from the New South Wales government in May, and the purchase of Alinta Energy for $4 billion by Chow Tai Fook Enterprises from TPG.
The top deal of all last year was French real estate giant Unibail-Rodamco's $ 32.6 billion bid for shopping centre group Westfield Corporation.
