Origin Energy shareholders voted down a takeover offer from Brookfield and EIG.Credit:Bloomberg
Vas Kolesnikoff,head of research at Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS) in Australia and New Zealand,said it was a big bill for Origin shareholders. Kolesnikoff earlier in his career worked for investment banks Macquarie Group and Merrill Lynch.
“The fees are quite substantial. It’s disappointing that they are so high and that the deal didn’t go ahead. It just shows you the level of professional services that go into these types of deals that shareholders generally have to foot the bill and the consultants and advisers get to buy new Mercedes.”
‘Even though the absolute number is high,those fees are not out of the market relative to the overall value of the deal.’
Steve Harker,a former Morgan Stanley Australia CEO
Steve Harker,a former long-serving chief executive of Morgan Stanley Australia,and also former Future Fund guardian and Westpac director,said critics who question the high transaction costs,and in particular the fees being paid on a failed deal,often forget that work starts on such enormous transactions well before they become public.
The controversial $9.39-a-share bid by Brookfield and EIG Partners has dragged on for more than a year.
“Even though the absolute number is high,those fees are not out of the market relative to the overall value of the deal,” Harker said.