Inter Pipeline Ltd. is evaluating a formal revised $8.6 billion offer from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP to buy Canada’s fourth-largest midstream company after rival suitor Pembina Pipeline Corp. said it wouldn’t raise its own bid for the company.
Brookfield agreed last Thursday to lift the cash portion of its offer by 2.6 per cent to $20 for each Inter Pipeline share in a push to break up a friendly, all-share takeover by Pembina.
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Pembina declined to increase or change its offer of 0.5 of its common shares for all the common shares of Inter Pipeline. Brookfield’s formal revised offer was filed Monday, Breanne Oliver, a spokeswoman for Inter Pipeline, said in an email.“Inter Pipeline’s board has a fiduciary duty to review and consider all other offers for the business, including the revised offer from Brookfield, which is currently under review by Inter Pipeline’s Special Committee,” she said.
The Pembina deal was dealt a blow over the weekend when Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., a prominent shareholder advisory firm, recommended investors reject Pembina and instead support Brookfield’s hostile offer.
Inter Pipeline is now left to decide the next move in a takeover saga that started in February with an unsolicited $7.1 billion offer by Brookfield Infrastructure that was rejected by Inter Pipeline’s board. Inter Pipeline announced an agreement with Pembina on June 1, and Brookfield has since revised its offer three times. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Pembina offer on July 29.
The fight over Inter Pipeline follows years of failed attempts to build major projects like TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL and Enbridge Inc.’s Energy East, which may have made existing lines more valuable. Inter Pipeline owns conduits across Western Canada, connecting oil and natural gas producers with domestic and foreign customers, as well as storage assets in Europe.
(Bloomberg News)
