Foreign bids surge for Australian companies

By Glenn Dyer | More Articles by Glenn Dyer

Foreign bids for Australian companies continue to surge, with significant offers on the table. Saint-Gobain has bid $4.3 billion for CSR, while Japan's Renesas proposes $9.1 billion for Altium. Additionally, there's a $US1.6 billion Indonesian-Australian offer for Illawarra Coal.

Among these bids, Electric Power Development (J-Power), one of Japan’s largest energy utilities, has put forth a smaller $381 million bid to acquire Queensland renewables developer Genex Power.

This bid comes after Altassian’s Scott Farquhar’s Skip Capital and Stonehaven Partners withdrew their $346 million offer for Genex, which was deemed undervalued by the company.

However, Genex now faces another bid, this time from J-Power, after rejecting their initial 24 cents a share offer. The latest bid at 27.5 cents a share has caused Genex shares to surge 38% as investors anticipate a potential bidding war.

J-Power has proposed to acquire all remaining shares of Genex for 27.5 cents per share, representing a significant premium. To safeguard against potential obstacles, including shareholder acceptance, J-Power has structured an off-market offer with a minimum acceptance condition.

Genex's board has engaged in negotiations with J-Power and expressed readiness to accept the offer if it becomes binding, signaling a potential shift in the company's ownership.

About Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer has been a finance journalist and TV producer for more than 40 years. He has worked at Maxwell Newton Publications, Queensland Newspapers, AAP, The Australian Financial Review, The Nine Network and Crikey.

View more articles by Glenn Dyer →