By Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australian pension fund AustralianSuper said on Monday it had rejected an "eleventh hour" offer from a Brookfield-led consortium and its partner EIG to drop opposition to their $10.5 billion bid for Origin Energy and join the takeover.
The A$300 billion fund, Australia's largest, had rejected an "unsolicited" offer to acquire an interest in Origin should the deal succeed and reaffirmed its intention to reject the bid come the Nov. 23 shareholder meeting, the fund said in a statement.
"AustralianSuper’s position is unchanged on the upcoming vote ... as we believe the offer remains substantially below our estimate of Origin’s long-term value," a spokesperson said.
AustralianSuper added it was Origin Energy's largest shareholder, but did not specify the size of its stake as it has done in previous releases. Its stake was last reported at 15%.
The bid for Australia's biggest energy retailer requires 75% of shareholder votes cast to pass but low turnout from the retail shareholders who make up about a third of the listing gives AustralianSuper's stake extra weight.
"The offer makes me wonder if the consortium are a little concerned that the deal won't go ahead without AustralianSuper," according to Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments and capital markets at VanEck, which owns a 0.3% stake in Origin.
"It's very difficult to get over the line without AustralianSuper."
Brookfield and EIG Partners earlier this month offered a "best and final" A$9.53 per share for Origin after raising a previous bid.
Both parties have previously said they held discussions with AustralianSuper earlier this year about bringing the fund into the deal.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Stephen Coates)
