* Iberdrola sweetens bid 3 cents to counter UAC's improved
offer
* UAC Energy hikes offer price by 6 cents per share
* Infigen shares rise 4%, topping Iberdrola offer price
(Adds comments, background, details on both bids)
By Shriya Ramakrishnan and Shashwat Awasthi
June 29 (Reuters) - A bidding war for Australian wind and
solar firm Infigen Energy IFN.AX heated up on Monday, with
Spain's Iberdrola IBE.MC raising its bid to A$856 million
($589.1 million), shortly after Philippine conglomerate Ayala
Corp AC.PS hiked its offer.
Philippines-based UAC Energy, a joint venture of Ayala's AC
Energy ACEPH.PS and Hong Kong-based UPC Renewables Group,
revised its cash offer to A$0.86 per share from A$0.80 per share
earlier on Monday, matching Iberdrola's IBE.MC initial bid.
UAC also declared its bid free of conditions which had irked
Infigen. Iberdrola responded immediately by sweetening its offer by 3
cents to A$0.89 a share, a touch above Infigen's close on Friday
of A$0.885, valuing the renewables firm at A$856 million.
Infigen shares jumped 4% to trade at A$0.92, indicating
investors expect both suitors to improved their bids.
Infigen said it was considering developments on both the
offers and advised shareholders not to take any action.
Analysts had forecast a bidding war as the firms tussle for
Infigen's seven wind farms and a large pipeline of projects
which it recently put on hold.
Iberdrola and UAC pounced on Infigen after its share price
slumped due to falling power prices in Australia and challenges
facing wind and solar firms hooking up projects to a shaky grid.
UAC has already secured approval for its bid from
Australia's foreign investment board, at a time when the country
has introduced tougher policies to monitor foreign investments
as interest rises for troubled Australian assets in the wake of
the coronavirus pandemic. Infigen earlier backed Iberdrola's offer, as the bid from
the Spanish company was 7.5% higher with fewer conditions.
"We think that Iberdrola may need to reduce the conditions
in its offer or offer a higher offer price in order to make its
offer clearly superior and retain the Infigen recommendation,"
RBC analysts said in a note.
($1 = 1.4531 Australian dollars)