Japan’s Mitsui has signed a bid implementation deed (BID) to acquire Australian oil and gas company AWE Limited for about $602m ($477.7m).

AWE said that the Mitsui’s offer is superior to bids made earlier by Mineral Resources and the China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group Australia.

The Australian firm has now recommended its shareholders to unanimously approve the Mitsui’s takeover offer of A$0.95 cash per every share they hold in the oil and gas company.

AWE said in a statement: “The Offer is unanimously recommended by the AWE Board in the absence of a superior offer and subject to an Independent Expert concluding that the Offer is fair and reasonable to AWE shareholders.

“Subject to these two qualifications, each AWE director intends to accept the Offer for all AWE Shares they hold or otherwise control.”

The offer to acquire AWE is part of Mitsui’s efforts to invest in good quality oil and gas assets in Australia as well as expand more broadly in the country’s gas sector by acquiring an operational platform.

AWE chairman Ken Williams said: “The Mitsui proposal, being all cash and pitched at a significant premium to the competing offers received by the AWE board, represented a superior value proposition. This is an excellent opportunity for shareholders to crystallize their investment in AWE at an attractive price”.

In December 2017, AWE had accepted a takeover offer of A$526m ($403m) from mining infrastructure provider Mineral Resources (MRL) by signing a binding scheme implementation deed. At that time, MRL had sweetened its offer to buy AWE from an earlier proposed acquisition price of A$484m ($364m).

AWE had also received an A$463m ($347.94m) offer from China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group (CERCG) which was later withdrawn.

Founded in 1997, AWE, which is headquartered in Sydney, is focused on upstream oil and gas opportunities. The company currently has production, development and exploration assets across Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Image: Mitsui plans to acquire Australia’s oil and gas firm AWE. Photo: courtesy of adamr/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.