Infratil and Mercury make full takeover offer for Tilt Renewables

Infratil has announced that its joint venture with Mercury NZ has sent an offer document to Tilt Renewables shareholders for the acquisition of shares not controlled by either company. Infratil and Mercury already respectively hold or control 51.04% and 19.99% of the Tilt Renewables shares.

The offer closes at 11.59pm on 15 October 2018. The offer price of NZD2.30 (US$1.51) represents a 24.3% premium to the closing share price of Tilt Renewables on 11 May 2018, being the last trading day before Mercury acquired its stake in the company from TECT Holdings Limited ("TECT"), a company 100% owned by the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust, for NZD2.30 per share.

Tilt Renewables has approximately 11% market share of installed wind capacity in Australasia, with a total installed capacity of 637 MW across eight wind farms. The company also owns a development pipeline of more than 1,600 MW of planning approved projects covering wind, solar and storage technologies.

The offer must now be accepted by Tilt Renewables' minority shareholders and approved by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). There is also a 50% acceptance condition that will be satisfied within the next two working days. 

There are some other customary restrictive conditions that Infratil and Mercury currently intend to waive or declare as satisfied (to the extent permitted by law) once the FIRB condition is satisfied. Payments to Tilt Renewables shareholders who accept the offer would commence within seven days of the FIRB's approval.