Investors plan $730m Z Energy share sale
Infratil is exiting its investment, Super Fund selling down to 10%
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Hawke’s Bay
UPDATED: Infratil, Super Fund pick an interesting time to sell Z Energy shares
Infratil [NZX: IFT] and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund are selling down their shares in Z Energy in a process expected to take two days.
Z Energy [NZX: ZEL] shares have been placed in a trading halt while a book build process is conducted for Infratil’s 20% stake in the fuel company alongside the sale of a further 9.725% held by the Super Fund.
An indicative price range for the book build has been set at $6 to $6.20 per share for Infratil’s 80 million shares and the Super Fund’s 38.9 million shares – for a total sale valued at up to $737.2 million.
The price reflects a discount to Tuesday’s $6.63 closing price of 8-9%.
The Super Fund will retain just over 10% of the shares in Z Energy following the sale.
Deutsche Craigs New Zealand and Deutsche Bank Australia have been appointed as book runners for the sale process.
Super Fund chief investment officer Matt Whineray says retaining a stake of more than 10% in the company reflected the Guardians' confidence in Z Energy's business strategy and management team.
"We look forward to continuing our relationship with Z Energy through the retention of our significant minority stake," Mr Whineray said.
The two investors previously sold 60% of their shares in Z Energy for $3.50 a share in an IPO in 2013 that raised $840 million.
That gave them a near 300% return on their investment, having previously contributed about $210 million each toward the $696.5 million purchase price in 2010 for what was then known as Shell New Zealand’s distribution and retail business.
Z Energy is waiting on approval from the Commerce Commission on its bid to acquire Chevron New Zealand's service stations.
Infratil says it expects to announce the outcome of the book build process by 9am on Thursday.
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Duncan Bridgeman
Tue, 29 Sep 2015
Tue, 29 Sep 2015
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Investors plan $730m Z Energy share sale
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