In this Oct. 12, 2012 file photo wind turbines produce green energy in Nauen near Berlin, Germany.Ferdinand Ostrop/The Associated Press
Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P may be done talking to its prospective takeover target, but the "best and final" bid it offered for Western Wind Energy Corp. today is unlikely to end the war of words between the two.
Brookfield boosted its offer for the energy development company, which owns wind turbines and solar fields primarily in the U.S., to $2.60 per share. That's an increase of 10 cents per share over its last bid - an offer the Vancouver-based Western Wind executives rejected last week.
On Sunday afternoon, Western Wind submitted a formal application to the Ontario Securities Commission asking for Brookfield (and the holding company being used to acquire Western Wind, WWE Equity Holdings Inc.) to prepare and disclose a formal valuation.
"We want our shareholders to be treated equitably," Jeff Ciachurski, Western Wind's chief executive said in a statement. "With a valuation in hand, our shareholders will be able to make an informed decision."
According to Western Wind, Brookfield has been invited to participate in the same process as the other 25 companies that signed a non-disclosure agreement and tripped through its data room. They chose not to do so.
An unimpressed Brookfield said Monday it won't be having any more talks with its target, but in its statement Monday said that "if Western Wind believed in the necessity of a formal valuation or fairness opinion, or that the offer was inadequate, it would have included a formal valuation or fairness opinion in one of its three directors' circulars."
The application to the OSC, Brookfield said, is yet another attempt to halt the sale. It intends to push on, OSC hearing or not.
The offer is conditional on Brookfield picking up 50 per cent or more of the common shares it doesn't already own by the expiry date of Feb. 11. So far, Brookfield said it has a little less than half the support it needs, with 22 per cent of common shareholders having either agreed to tender their shares, or agreed to a lock-up agreement to tender unless another bid is made at a 5 per cent premium to Brookfield's offer.
Brookfield's minority position has had a chilling effect on other bidders, a spokesperson for Western Wind said.
In early January, Brookfield wrote a letter to Western Wind's board asking for information on other potential buyers so that it could reconsider whether to raise its $2.50-a-share bid. Brookfield also put the squeeze on regulators, hoping to speed the sale process.
As Streetwise noted at the time, Brookfield told Western Wind it was "concerned that you may try to delay completion of our offer by taking a position that our offer is not a permitted bid." To prevent a Western Wind poison pill, Brookfield approached the British Columbia Securities Commission.
(Jacqueline Nelson is a Globe and Mail Financial Services Reporter.)