AustralianSuper lashes ‘despicable’ behaviour in Origin Energy tussle

The CEO of Australia’s biggest super fund has called out behind-the-scenes advisers over ‘fevered’ pressure in the Origin Energy saga.

AustralianSuper boss Paul Schroder has criticised the behaviour of some advisers in the fight for Origin. Picture: Bloomberg/Carla Gottgens

AustralianSuper has lashed the toxic and “despicable” behaviour behind the scenes in the $20bn tussle for energy giant Origin, with chief executive Paul Schroder criticising some participants for “pulling whatever lever they could” to get a deal over the line.

Three months after shareholders including AustralianSuper rejected asset manager Brookfield’s offer for Origin, Mr Schroder described some of the exchanges in the lengthy fight as “fevered”.

“We had some really good engagement with (Origin). But I do want to call out some behaviour which was despicable,” Mr Schroder said.

“For people to say that funds who have one view or another were either ‘wreckers’ of the environment or not, or some other spurious kinds of things that were talked about,” Mr Schroder said.

“We’re investors, we think it’s a great company with great assets and good management. We think it’s worth more. That’s it.”

AustralianSuper, the nation’s biggest super fund with $300bn in assets under management, is the largest shareholder in Origin, with a 17 per cent stake.

Speaking to The Australian on the sidelines of a superannuation conference, Mr Schroder clarified that he wasn’t talking about Origin or private equity giant Brookfield when he made the comments but rather others “acting as advisers”.

“In the background, legal threats were being made, all sorts of pressure was being brought to bear. I reckon we’re better than that. I think we saw lots of behaviour that is not becoming of grown-ups in a mature democracy,” he said.

“There was a great deal of pressure put on a great many people, which was unnecessary.

“There was a host of people acting as advisers, and participants around the transaction but not directly involved in the transaction … it was reported back to me that there were a lot of people putting a lot of pressure on and it was really very ordinary (behaviour),” Mr Schroder said.

“There were a lot of people who stood to benefit (from the deal going ahead) and so they were pulling whatever levers they could.”

Mr Schroder repeated his view that Origin would play a significant role in the energy transition as he added his take on Brookfield’s $20bn takeover bid, which collapsed in December.

“I think we (AustralianSuper) and Brookfield think exactly the same about how much it’s worth, and they just had a view about how much they could get it for, basically.

“We have a very strong conviction about the future of that company.”