BOW Bow Energy Fpo

Australia's foreign investment watchdog has pushed back a decision on the A$535 million ($554 million) takeover of coal seam gas developer Bow Energy Ltd. (BOW.AU) by a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) and PetroChina Co. (PTR) by up to 90 days.

In a government notice to parliament, the Foreign Investment Review Board said it needed more time to decide whether to approve the deal, which would enable Shell and PetroChina's Arrow Energy venture to expand its proposed gas-export facility in Queensland state.

Bow's board has unanimously recommended investors vote in favor of the A$1.52 a share offer, and Shell said in September that it expected the transaction to be implemented in January 2012.

It isn't known why FIRB has decided against ruling on the transaction within the typical 30-day window.

Around 95% of FIRB decisions are made within a 30-day period set out in law, and so-called interim orders extending the process by 90 days were made just twice during the year to the end of June 2010, the last period for which FIRB figures are available.

"Proposals that took more than 30 days to decide were generally delayed by a lack of sufficient information from the parties or because the application involved significant complexity or sensitivity," FIRB said in its most recent annual report.

Coal seam gas -- trapped stores of methane far below the Earth's surface -- is one of the world's hottest energy plays. More than A$20 billion was spent in 2008 on deals in Australia alone by companies including Shell, ConocoPhillips and BG Group PLC of the U.K.

In August, Arrow Energy awarded preliminary engineering and design contracts for an export facility at Curtis Island, near Gladstone, producing an initial 8 million metric tons of LNG a year.

Acquiring Bow Energy would allow the venture potentially to expand the annual output capacity of each of the facility's two processing units, known as trains, to 4.6 million tons of LNG.

-By David Winning and David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; +61-2-82724688; david.winning@dowjones.com

Bow Energy (ASX:BOW)
Historical Stock Chart
Von Mai 2024 bis Jun 2024

Bow Energy (ASX:BOW)
Historical Stock Chart
Von Jun 2023 bis Jun 2024