APA tilt at Tilt Renewables

This is from 'The Australian' of Monday 25 Jan 2021:

(possible capital raising?)

(Tilt has operations in Australia and NZ):

The $11bn listed APA Group is understood to have hired investment bank UBS as part of an attempt to buy a 65.6 per cent stake in Tilt Renewables, currently worth about $1.3bn.

The stake is owned by Infratil, which is considering a sale after fielding approaches.

The understanding is that APA has investment bank UBS on board as it positions itself for a major equity raising should it win the auction.

Some say that the stake could achieve a price as high as $2bn and APA could tap the market for between $1bn and $1.5bn.

It comes after Infratil received a NZ$5.4bn takeover proposal from AustralianSuper that was rejected.

The world’s largest wind power investor Iberdrola, with at least $197bn worth of assets under management, is understood to have made an early bid for the stake last year ahead of the move by Infratil to test market interest.

However, while on that basis it was considered a front runner to buy the stake in the latest sales process, it is believed that its bid was rejected by Infratil and it is now understood that it is no longer in pursuit of the interest.