Energy & Science
Brookfield Spurned in $14 Billion Plan to Close Coal Plants
- Fund and tech billionaire targeted key Australian polluter AGL
- AGL says offer ‘materially undervalues’ the power company
Cooling towers at the AGL Energy Loy Yang Power Station in the Latrobe Valley, Australia.
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Australian utility AGL Energy Ltd. rejected a multibillion-dollar takeover bid from Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and technology billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, who plan to accelerate the closure of the company’s polluting coal-fired power plants.
Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes’s investment firm Grok Ventures have a A$20 billion ($14 billion) transition plan to shift AGL to clean energy and “remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached,” the consortium said in a statement. AGL shares jumped 11% to close at the highest since July.