SHAREHOLDERS of Queensland Gas Company have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a $327 million partnership with AGL Energy.
Among the approval of other resolutions, almost 61 million votes were cast in favour of the AGL transaction compared to 10 million against.
AGL upped its offer for QGC to $1.60 per share on Thursday night, following a last-minute takeover bid by US asset manager TCW Group.
Under the previous deal, AGL planned to take its 27.5% stake through a share placement at $1.44/share.
Before the vote took place, QGC reiterated its support for the AGL offer and rejected TCW's revised scrip-and-cash offer.
"Your board faced a relatively straightforward decision in weighing up the AGL and TCW deals," QGC chairman Robert Bryan told shareholders at Friday's extraordinary general meeting.
"To run with the enhanced offer from AGL – already designated as 'fair and reasonable' – and participate in a recapitalised QGC as a 70% shareholder, or opt for TCW's conditional offer of cash and preference shares."
Under the AGL-QGC partnership, AGL will appoint three directors to a newly expanded QGC board of nine directors. The new directors were named today as Stephen Mikkelson, Michael Fraser and Michael Moraza.
Additional arrangements provide for AGL and QGC to enter into a gas sale agreement for AGL to purchase 540 petajoules of gas over 20 years, with an additional option of 200PJ. AGL will also enter into a $22.5 million gas market development services agreement with QGC, whereby QGC will obtain rights to use AGL's excess pipeline capacity.
MPO Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
