Origin Energy’s board is facing demands to consider a demerger, a beefed-up transition plan and higher dividend payouts after the collapse of a $20 billion takeover plan despite the support of a large majority of investors.

Kingfisher Capital Partners’s Ross Illingworth, who invests on behalf of high net worth families, said Origin needed to pre-empt any hostile takeover from its North American suitors Brookfield and EIG – or from another party – by returning cash and franking credits as dividends or buybacks.