Article by Simone Grogan courtesy of business news.
Hancock Prospecting may have secured the lead it needs to edge out Strike Energy in the fight for Warrego after Mineral Resources sold its stake in the target.
Hancock’s 26 cents per share offer ticked over the required minimum 40 per cent mark at the weekend to give the group a 45.63 per cent position in Warrego Energy.
The company is on track to secure a further 4.92 per cent from acceptances that have not yet ticked over, which would give Hancock a 50 per cent stake in the target and make it Warrego’s biggest shareholder.
It also means Hancock’s offer is now unconditional.
Mineral Resources is understood to have sold its 19.2 per cent share in the Warrego, giving Ms Rinehart’s company the foothold it needs to edge ahead of Strike Energy and prevent the bidding war from heading towards a stalemate.
Mineral Resources has previously indicated Perth Basin assets were ‘over-inflated’ and that it had no plans to make a takeover play for Warrego.
It is also unlikely Strike will return with another offer, after last Friday deeming its one-for-one proposal as best and final.
It’s the latest development in what has become an openly antagonistic bidding war between Strike and Hancock Prospecting subsidiary, Hancock Energy, which are fighting to take control of Warrego and its gas potential in Western Australia’s Perth Basin.
More to come.
