Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 50 2021

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Senex agrees to

Posco takeover

SOUTH KOREA AUSTRALIA’S Senex Energy has agreed to be export project. Posco owns oil and gas stakes
acquired by Posco International, the trading in Southeast Asia and is seeking to expand into
arm of South Korean steelmaker Posco, for other markets. However, it does not appear to
AUD852.1mn ($606.8mn). have exports in mind with the Senex deal, given
Senex approved the deal after Posco raised that much of the Australian company’s output is
its offer for a third time, to AUD4.60 ($3.3) earmarked for the domestic market.
per share. The South Korean company initially If Senex shareholders approve the transac-
offered AUD4.00 ($2.85) per share, subsequently tion, it will close in late March 2022. Posco also
hiking this to AUD4.20 ($2.99) and AUD4.40 intends to sell a 49.9% stake in Senex to Hancock
($3.13) per share before arriving at the current Energy if it succeeds in taking over the company.
price. Senex shareholders will also receive an However, that deal is not a prerequisite to the
AUD0.05 ($0.04) per share dividend for the six Posco-Senex transaction going ahead.
months up to December 31. In a separate announcement released on the
In a December 13 statement, Senex said that same day, Senex said it had struck a deal with
the offer price represented a 25% premium to Royal Dutch Shell’s Australian subsidiary to
its average 30-day share price on the Australian supply 8 petajoules (215mn cubic metres) of gas
Securities Exchange (ASX) and a 34% premium to the domestic market over a four-year period.
to the average 90-day share price up to October The gas will be supplied at the Wallumbilla Hub
15. from 2022, at a fixed price that Senex said was in
Senex is a producer of coal-bed methane line with current market levels.
(CBM), known locally in Australia as coal-seam The deal illustrates Senex’s focus on Austral-
gas (CSG), and supplies the country’s East Coast ia’s domestic market.™
market, as well as the Gladstone LNG (GLNG)

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 15•December•2021