Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy - part of his family office Tattarang - went below the radar for six months, as it slowly thought about the opportunity and then rapidly worked up a bid over the past eight weeks.
In doing so, it beat a handful of big names in Australia’s energy sector - Origin Energy and AGL Energy - a big name in global utilities (Iberdrola) and some private capital giants like Canada’s CDPQ and QIC.
In Street Talk, we look at how it all came together. Partners Group seemed as surprised as anyone that Squadron Energy was a serious contender, although its surprise was eight weeks ago when indicative bids lobbed.
While Squadron put in a nice number, Partners Group asked it to shore up its credentials, by doing things a normal bidder would’ve already done - appoint advisers, show technical expertise and the like.
Fast forward eight weeks and Squadron had emerged as a fully fledged contender, and toppled Iberdrola in the final stage over the weekend.
While Forrest obviously calls the shots and his right-hand man John Hartman was heavily involved late, the bid team was spearheaded by a former AGL Energy executive who only signed up with Forrest four months ago.
His first assignment: secure Australia’s biggest ever renewables deal. It’s astounding stuff.
Eight weeks ago, not even CWP Renewables and its owner Partners Group was sure if the Forrest family was serious about spending $4 billion to become Australia’s biggest windfarm and renewables owner.
Quadrant Private Equity is jumping back into Australia’s burgeoning IT services industry, this time securing stakes in three cloud specialist providers in a chunky new deal for its growth fund.
