Shareholders reap $1.2 billion as Brisbane companies merge
More than $1.2 billion has flowed through to shareholders after the takeover of two Brisbane companies was settled.
Over The Wire's offices. (Image: CMP_Photo)
Gas company Senex has been bought for $900 million by Korea’s POSCO International and Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Energy while IT company Over the Wire Holdings will fold into Aussie Broadband after a $344 million buyout.
Senex shareholders did not go quietly with several putting up a fight at Tuesday’s shareholder meeting and claiming the booming oil price in recent weeks meant the takeover was cheap at $4.60 a share.
But 93 per cent eventually gave it the tick which will mean POSCO will hold 50.1 per cent and Hancock the rest.
Aussie Broadband managing director Phillip Britt said the takeover of OTW was a major milestone for the company.
“We’ve been working towards this moment for some time now and we are absolutely delighted to officially welcome OTW to the Aussie family,” he said.
The combined company would have a staff of about 1000 and OTW would bring with it 16,000 business customers.
OTW managing director Michael Omeros said it was the start of a new chapter and the combined company would be “something unique”.
A key asset in the takeover was OTW’s cloud and security business which Britt said was an area of big demand as businesses look for ways to secure their data.
It was expected there would be about $8 million to $11 million in synergies saved through the takeover and merger.
