After gases group BG's failed hostile bid for Australia's Origin Energy, has the company found a new target?
Reports from Australia suggest BG has now urned its attention to Queensland Gas Company. In February BG bought a near 10% stake in QGC and the talk is it has increased this to around 36% by buying the shares held by another Australian group, AGL Energy. Both QCC - which has a £1.2n market capitalisation - and AGL have seen their shares suspended pending a "material" transaction.
Analysts at Evolution said:
"According to press speculation BG is to offer around A$6.30 (250p) a share for QGC valuing it at £2.3bn and a premium of 97% to when QGC was suspended earlier today.
"If BG goes ahead with an offer, and if successful, our maths strongly suggests that BG was right to walk away from the over priced Origin deal while QGC offers almost the same reserves potential but at a fraction of the price."
BG is currently down 62p at 712p.
