Australia's largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, said on Tuesday it had made a NZ$5.37 billion ($3.78 billion) offer to buy New Zealand's Infratil Ltd, in what could be one of the biggest deals involving a company from either country this year.
The acquisition would give AustralianSuper control of Infratil's infrastructure assets in New Zealand and Australia, including a 65.5% stake in renewable energy firm Tilt Renewables.
The non-binding offer of NZ$7.43 a share represents a 22.2% premium to Infratil shares' closing price on Monday.
The deal includes a cash consideration of NZ$5.79 per share and a distribution of 0.22 shares of Trustpower Ltd, in which Infratil is an investor, for each Infratil share, AustralianSuper said.
"We see significant potential to invest in the growth of Infratil’s assets over the long term on behalf of AustralianSuper’s members, which allows us to provide significant value to Infratil shareholders today," said Nik Kemp, AustralianSuper's head of infrastructure.
The takeover bid comes a day after Infratil said it would undertake a strategic review of its stake in Tilt Renewables.
(Reporting by A K Pranav in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
