Australian utility company rejects offer but bidders say it’s ‘only the starting gun’
Brookfield Asset Management and billionaire climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes are prepared to pursue a hostile takeover of Australian energy giant AGL Energy after the company knocked back a preliminary offer.
Under the proposed A$5bn ($3.6bn) deal, Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes would take the publicly traded company private and spend up to A$20bn turning it from Australia’s biggest carbon emitter into one of the country’s largest net zero renewable energy retailers.
If the bid is successful, it will accelerate Australia’s transition to a renewables-dominated grid. Last week, AGL’s main competitor Origin Energy announced it would close its last remaining coal plant seven years earlier than planned, saying it was no longer economically feasible for coal generators to compete with cheaper solar and wind.
Read more: Financial Times
