Has MinRes Shown Its Hands Accidentally?

Has MinRes Outed Itself As a Suitor for Strike Energy? - The Australian

In an otherwise straightforward bidder’s statement from MinRes, talking up the merits of its one for 1367 scrip bid, a nugget of information on page 89 is striking for its inaccuracy.

Tucked away in the Definitions and Interpretation section, where you can find such gems as “MinRes Director means a director of MinRes” and “Acceptance Form means the acceptance form enclosed”, the ABN (Australian Business Number) of Norwest Energy, 59 078 012 745, is listed.

Ordinarily that detail would be as eye-watering dull as the rest of the aforementioned definitions, save for the fact that it is in fact, the ABN of Strike Energy.

It would not a be a surprise to anyone that the $14.3bn MinRes would have run the ruler over all of the Perth Basin gas players.

Norwest was an obvious first target, with MinRes already owning 19.9 per cent of its stock, but with Western Australian gas supplies tightening up over the next decade - and potentially getting even worse even further out - snapping up emerging gas producers sooner rather than later makes sense - just look at Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Energy seeking to buy up Warrego.

A spokesperson for MinRes yesterday did not address the company’s potential interest in Strike when asked.

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