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Investment management firm Brookfield is set to acquire a 20% stake in Octopus Energy after reaching agreement to purchase Australian power company Origin.
Origin Energy acquired its stake in Octopus after investing £300 million in 2020, with the Australian firm having injected more cash over the past three years to maintain its equity stake.
In an announcement on Monday (27 March) Brookfield Renewable Partners and the EIG-managed LNG company MidOcean Energy have signed a binding agreement to purchase 100% of Origin’s shares for A$18.7 billion (£10.1 billion).
Brookfield, its institutional partners and investors will own Origin’s energy markets business, Australia’s largest integrated power generator and energy retailer.
MidOcean meanwhile will separately own Origin’s integrated gas segment including its upstream gas interests and the 27.5% stake in Australia Pacific LNG.
Brookfield already has a number of interests in the UK, including a 37.5% stake in SGN. It also owns Homeserve.
Mark Carney, chair, Brookfield Asset Management and head of transition investing, said: “As the energy transition gathers pace, what’s needed is increasingly clear: faster deployment of large-scale renewables, the accelerated, responsible retirement of coal generation, and an interim, supportive role for gas as the dependable back-up fuel.”
Octopus has received a number of high-profile backers in recent years.
In 2021 it was announced that Generation Investment Management, a sustainable investment fund chaired by former US vice president Al Gore, acquired a 13% stake in Octopus Energy Group for $600 (£437) million.
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