When Brookfield and its consortium partners were in hot pursuit of Origin Energy, a key argument was that it would be incredibly difficult for Origin to balance investment required to steer its legacy energy business through the decarbonisation of the Australian economy while maintaining, let alone improving, returns to shareholders.

But since the deal was knocked off on December 4 by AustralianSuper, Origin’s shares have risen 27 per cent. And on Wednesday, chief executive Frank Calabria used his annual investor day to lift the company’s dividend payout ratio, from between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of free cash flow to a minimum of 50 per cent.