Australian oil and gas producer AWE Limited recommends its shareholders to accept the takeover offer made by Japan’s Mitsui, in the absence of a superior proposal.
Mitsui made an unsolicited, non-binding and conditional proposal to acquire AWE for $0.95 per share in January this year.
AWE said in its latest statement the review was evaluated by an independent expert that valued AWE shares in the range of $0.78 to $1.06, concluding the Mitsui offer to be ‘fair and reasonable.’
In addition to advising its shareholders to accept the Mitsui offer, AWE advised its shareholder to reject the CERCG Aus Gas offer that stood at $0.73 per share.
The company noted at the start of this month that the Mitsui offer was superior to both the Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes) offer and China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group Australia.
The Mitsui offer comes at a 74.3 percent premium to AWE’s closing price of $0.545 on November 29, 2017, that was the day prior to the disclosure by AWE that CERCG Australia made the offer.
Mitsui offer is subject to a 50.1 percent minimum acceptance condition, as well as other conditions. The offer is scheduled to close on March 23, 2018, unless withdrawn or extended AWE said.