(Adds comment from BG CEO, analyst, trader, response from Origin) By Lyndal McFarland & Bill Lindsay Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SYDNEY -(Dow Jones)- BG Group PLC (LSE:BG) (BG.LN) Tuesday revived a A$13.83 billion (
US$13.2 billion) takeover bid for Australian integrated energy company Origin Energy Ltd. (Australia:ORG) (ORG.AU), just weeks after its friendly proposal was rebuffed by the target's board.
BG's bid, which includes around A$190 million for Origin share options, would be the second biggest foreign takeover of an Australian company behind Mexican cement maker Cemex's A$16.7 billion acquisition of Rinker Group in 2006 if it proceeds.
With the bid of A$15.50 cash for each Origin share, U.K.-based BG is hoping to circumvent the Origin board with an appeal directly to shareholders, claiming the target's rejection of its bid was based on inappropriate assumptions and incomplete information.
Buying Origin would boost BG's presence in the booming Asia Pacific region, giving it access to Origin's coal seam gas, or CSG, reserves for its planned A$8 billion liquefied natural gas export operation in the Australian state of Queensland.
While BG highlighted the risks and lengthy timeframe required to develop Origin's largely unproved upstream reserves, it said it plans to invest in all of Origin's downstream energy businesses in Australia including power generation and retail.
"We're not here as a reserve exploiter that's just interested in the CSG resources, that's part of the larger picture," BG Chief Executive Frank Chapman told a media briefing in Sydney.
"We're buying the whole company because we have pursued successfully this integrated energy chain strategy on a global scale."
BG is one of at least four parties planning LNG plants near the central Queensland port town of Gladstone, seeking to convert the fuel trapped in the state's abundant coal reserves into LNG. The LNG has the potential to attract big premiums to Australian domestic gas sales when shipped to energy-hungry Asian markets.
The U.K. group's offer represents a 48% premium to Origin's closing price of A$10.47 on April 29 - the last trading day before the announcement of BG's initial approach.
Shares in Origin, which have traded mostly above the bid price since BG was rebuffed last month, jumped to a new record high of A$16.48 in intraday trading Tuesday.
The shares closed 90 cents or 5.8% higher than yesterday at A$16.42, with analysts saying the 6% premium to the bid price suggests BG may have to pay a higher price to sway shareholders.
"Clearly the share price reaction shows the market doesn't think its a goer," said one analyst at a major retail brokerage, who declined to be named.