BG Group given month for Contact offer

The bidder for Origin Energy, Contact Energy's majority owner, has received a Takeovers Panel exemption from having to make any immediate takeover offer for Contact.

But bidder BG Group said on Monday the Takeovers Panel had required that it make a cash bid for Contact within one month of its offer for Origin Energy becoming unconditional.

Britain's BG Group is launching a $A12.9 billion takeover proposal for Origin, Australia's second biggest electricity and gas retailer and 51.36-per cent owner of Contact.

Questions have been raised about what BG Group plans to do with Origin's stake in Contact if the bid succeeds, with some analysts expecting a sale.

In a statement on Monday, BG Group said the Takeovers Panel had also exempted it from having to obtain Contact shareholder approval as a condition of the Origin transaction.

The bid to be made for Contact, within a month of the offer for Origin becoming unconditional, would have to be at the value per share attributed to Contact by BG Group in the price payable for Origin shares.

That value would be verified by a Takeovers Panel-approved independent expert, and the bid would be on terms and conditions approved by the panel.

The conditions would also include the approval of the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office, which BG Group said it had not yet applied to.

If, at the time of BG Group's successful acquisition of Origin, Origin's shareholding in Contact was 20 per cent or below, then the New Zealand Takeovers Code would not apply, BG Group said.

If the code were not applicable, then BG Group would not need to rely on the exemption and would not be obliged to make a follow-on offer.

BG Group said its board, when fixing the proposed price of $A14.70 for the acquisition of Origin shares, did not attribute any premium to the market price of Contact shares.