BG Group Bids A$796 Million to Pure Energy

123jump.com Staff
09 Feb, 2009
New York City

BG Group launches a rival bid for Pure Energy. The all cash bid offered for the company A$796 million and the bid may be revised if Arrow Energy raises its offer of cash and stock. Job placement ads in January across the nation declined 6.3% and fell nearly 40% from a year ago.

[R]3:00AM New York, 7:00PM Sydney - Australia job placement ads declined 6.3% in January and fall nearly 40% from a year ago. BG Group launches all cash offer for Pure Energy.[/R]

Australian stocks rose 1.1% on the optimism that government intervention will help to forestall a deepening economic decline. Separately, private sector hiring ads declined 6.3% in January.

In Sydney trading ASX 200 index rose 1.1% or 38.7 to 3,508.60.

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, 121 rose, 60 declined, and 19 were unchanged. Babcock & Brown led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 13.9% followed by Macquarie DDR Trust rising 13.6%.

Australian Job Ads Fall 6.3% in January

Australia & New Zealand Bank reported today the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet declined 6.3% to a weekly average of 180,349 per week in January and fell 33.7% than a year earlier.

In trend terms the total number of job advertisements dropped 6% in December and fell 30.3% than a year ago.

ANZ says the number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers increased 12.3% to an average of 11,391 per week after falling 13.5% in December.

However, newspaper advertisements are 40.7% lower than the same period a year ago.

The increase in newspaper job advertisements in the January was driven by a decline in ads in South Australia of 15.1%, in New South Wales of 13.8%, in Victoria of 13.0%, in Western Australia of 12.1% and in Queensland of 7.8%.

The placement ads in Tasmania and Northern Territory fell 1.4% and 1.2% respectively.

According to the report, the number of internet job advertisements tumbled 7.3% to average 168,959 per week in January and also fell 33.2% than 12 months earlier.

ANZ Head of Australian Economics Warren Hogan said, “Although internet job ads remain weak, we are encouraged by the jump in newspaper advertising. Although by no means a strong signal that the worst is over for job advertising, it does provide some tentative evidence that the Government''s first fiscal stimulus package may be having a positive impact on the labor market in early 2009.”

BG Launches Rival Bid For Pure Energy

Dow Jones Newswire reported today that BG Group has launched a A$796 million all-cash rival bid for Pure Energy.

The bid comes in the wake of a cash and stock bid for Pure from Arrow Energy, a joint venture partner of Royal Dutch Shell in Australia.

BG is offering A$6.40 cash per Pure share compared to Arrow''s offer of A$2.70 cash plus 1.21 of its shares for each Pure share.

BG offer is at a 19% premium to the implied value of Arrow''s offer at the close of trade on Friday last week.

In addition, the company said it has already acquired 10% interest in Pure.

Gainers & Losers

Babcock & Brown led advancers in the ASX 200 index shares with a rise of 13.9% followed by Macquarie DDR Trust of 13.6%, in Arrow Energy Ltd. of 11.7%, in ING Office Fund of 11.7%, and Linc Energy of 11.6%.

Resource stocks increased as gold prices advanced 10 cents to $914 per ounce.

Suncorp Metway led decliners in the ASX 200 index shares with a decline of 20.7% followed by losses in Tishman Speyer of 14.8%, in Coca-Cola Amatil of 11.2%, in Insurance Australia of 9.5%, and PMP Ltd. of 7.9%.