Australia's biggest electricity company has rejected an $8 billion takeover bid that could have shut down its Latrobe Valley coal power station 15 years early.
A consortium involving Australian technology billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canadian infrastructure company Brookfield on the weekend offered to buy AGL for $7.50 a share.
The bid was conditional on the company meeting net-zero target emissions by 2030, which would have meant closing its Loy Yang A power station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley by 2030 instead of 2045.
But this morning the company issued a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) turning down the hostile bid saying it "materially undervalues the company on a change of control basis, and is not in the best interests of AGL Energy shareholders".
AGL Energy chairman Peter Botten said the proposal did not offer shareholders a premium for such a significant change.
"Under the unsolicited proposal the board believes AGL Energy shareholders would be forgoing the opportunity to realise potential future value via AGL Energy's proposed demerger as both proposed organisations pursue decisive action on decarbonisation," he said.
It comes just over a week after AGL revealed it would close its Loy Yang A facility, which produces about one-third of the state's electricity, three years ahead of schedule in 2045,
It also announced its New South Wales power station near Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter would close two years early by 2033.
Mr Cannon-Brookes, who's been an outspoken advocate for urgent climate change action, told ABC RN Breakfast the proposal included the stipulation the coal plants would be closed by 2030.
"That dispels the long term demise of coal-fired power because it will drive the power prices down during the day, and these old coal-fired power stations will not be able to survive," Mr Cannon-Brookes said.
More to come.
