origin to takeover sxy for its gas, page-15

15 hours ago: Elliot, came out midnight Australian Eastern time, unlike you to mistake the research, see below: article in full, April 25, Australians are quite a fair few hours ahead based on the Meridian line being in the Pacific somewhere:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...e/news-story/c87fc746bd9e135df3998c2b085f823d
Investors line up in Origin Energy’s trade sale


Origin’s east coast portfolio

Origin reserves

Origin share price

• 
  

• The Australian
• 12:00AM April 25, 2017
• BRIDGET CARTER
  
  Mergers & Acquisitions Editor
  Sydney
  @BridgetCarterb
  
  SCOTT MURDOCH
  
  Journalist
  Sydney
  @murdochsj
  

The trade sale side of the contest for Origin Energy’s $1.5 billion upstream gas business is now under way, as is the matchmaking process between prospective suitors and advisers.
Boutique advisory firm Rothschild is believed to be advising Senex on its tilt for Origin Energy’s $1.5bn-plus upstream gas business, backed by its major shareholder, private equity firm EIC. Beach Energy is working with Credit Suisse.
Morgan Stanley is paired up with one of the other parties entering the contest — private equity firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Apollo and Lone Star.
Missing from the picture of prospective bidders will be Santos, which opted not to look at Origin’s assets.
The $1.5bn portfolio is up for sale — either to a trade buyer or as a float — through investment banks UBS and Macquarie Capital.
It is widely believed that the potential buyers’ interest does not extend to the entire suite of assets, which includes the BassGas and Otway projects in Victoria and New Zealand’s Kupe Gas project and asset in the Cooper Basin.
But while some have said that consortiums will form to buy the assets, others say that Macquarie may work to put the consortiums together.
This meant that while Origin wanted to divest the assets in one line, bids for parts would be acceptable.
Confidentiality agreements to inspect the assets were signed by interested parties last week ahead the opening of a data room.
Working for Origin on the upstream business that is being sold to pay down debt is the former boss of Newcrest mining, Greg Robinson, who some had suggested could have been the chief executive of a spun-out entity if it listed.
Mr Robinson is playing a role in the division of the business, with respect to the gas agreements that will be put into place with Origin, given they need to be constructed on an arm’s-length basis.
In a research note, Ord Minnet said Origin would benefit from greater volatility in wholesale electricity markets and an increasingly tight east coast gas market could create a higher value for the upstream business on offer.