Pacific accepts QIC offer

The board of Pacific Energy has backed QIC’s improved takeover bid, after it matched a rival $470 million offer.

Pacific said QIC, formerly Queensland Investment Corporation, matched a $1.085 per share offer on Friday.

The competing offer was submitted on Tuesday by a consortium comprised of Sydney-based fund manager Infrastructure Capital Group and Canadian pension fund OPTrust.

Pacific executive director Kenneth Hall, who owns 48.7 per cent of Pacific, indicated he would vote in favour of QIC if it matched the rival offer, which was a big increase from the original $422 million bid.

In addition to the $1.085 per share offer, the revised QIC bid provides that Pacific shareholders will be entitled to an additional consideration of $0.005 per Pacific share if a break fee is not paid to the ICG/OPTrust consortium.

On Friday, QIC told the Takeovers Panel that it believed the new agreement was a clear and wilful breach of its scheme implementation deed with Pacific by denying it the benefit of a matching right.

QIC said the new agreement included a $2.5 million break fee, which would reduce the value of the company’s assets if the company exercised its matching right.

Additionally, it claimed the agreement was inconsistent with Pacific’s publicly disclosed intentions in relation to how it would conduct its affairs in the event of a competing proposal.

Shares in the James Cullen-led Pacific were up 0.9 per cent to trade at $1.13 at 10.40am AEST, a record high for the company.