I think his interest is within the context that he is apparently backing the BPT bid as per reported by The Australians today. And for disclosure, I had no idea Twiggy and Stokes are in bed together.
Gina Rinehart raises the stakes against Beach Energy with a higher offer for Warrego | The Australian
Snippets below...
A tussle between Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart over West Australian oil and gas producer Warrego Energy has accelerated after the businesswoman lobbed a 28c-a-share bid late on Friday. Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting is vying for the Perth Basin operator against ASX-listed Beach Energy, backed by Dr Forrest. Beach had earlier on Friday bid 25c a share for the company as it attempted to convince Warrego’s board and shareholders not to support the Hancock offer, which had originally come in at 23c a share.
A bidding war for the company broke out after ASX-listed Strike Energy, its joint venture partner in WA, made a scrip-based bid that would not value Warrego at above 20c a share. However, both the Strike and Beach offers are more complex than that from Mrs Rinehart, which the board favours....
...Warrego shares rose 2.2c, or 8.5 per cent, to close at 28c. They have more than doubled in one month. Strike was initially confident its bid was a winner, telling the ASX in a statement that the Warrego board “intended to unanimously recommend a merger between the two companies’’. But the Warrego board did no such thing, and late the next day, on November 11, Beach lobbed a 20c-a-share bid, which was endorsed by the board by the following Monday.
The prized asset being fought over in the battle for Warrego is its West Erregulla venture with Strike, where it announced a 41 per cent reserves upgrade in July. Strike told the ASX in November that it believed there was further “high impact and low-risk upside resource potential’’. The bidding war for Warrego kicked off speculation that a consolidation of all players in the Perth Basin was in the offing, with analysts suggesting Strike would be a target, and potentially Beach as well. This has at times pushed Strike’s offer past the Beach bid. Strike shares rose 6.7 per cent, or 2c, on Friday to close at 32c.Perth Basin players Norwest Energy and Talon Energy also saw some strength on Friday, with Norwest up 2 per cent at 4.8c and Talon 6.3 per cent higher at 17c.The Hancock bid has fewer conditions attached than the other offers, with shareholders to be paid within 10 days of acceptance. Credit Suisse analysts told clients the interest in Warrego was “reflective of appetite by strategic buyers for low-cost gas near infrastructure amid a tightening WA gas market”. While Beach has synergies with its neighbouring assets, “Hancock may have use for gas in its mining operations (and partner POSCO in Senex may also have interest in gas for steel,” they said. “While the higher bid price is not material to Beach, the increased Beach offer reinforces our question, is Beach also after Warrego to manage downside Waitsia reserves risk,” they added....
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