With gas prices currently at record highs, it makes sense that EIG has bid aggressively for the LNG assets, whose cash flow has gone through the roof thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine.

EIG’s desire to gain a meaningful stake in Origin’s LNG and get its hands on an interest in a gas project of this size recognises that gas is ‘transition gold’, as the world moves away from even dirtier sources of fossil fuel energy. For Origin shareholders, it’s a moot point. They are being offered $9 per share - a price Origin shareholders have not seen since before the pandemic.

The difference between the Brookfield/Cannon-Brookes takeover attempt for AGL and the offer for Origin could not be more stark.

The AGL offer was met with resistance from its board from the start. Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes’ plan for AGL directly conflicted with its own strategy to demerge (or split) the company into two parts - creating a retail company and a wholesale generation company.

The Brookfield/Cannon-Brookes strategy was a repudiation of what was being pushed by the then-AGL board and management. It wasn’t an ideal position from which to begin a constructive dialogue. And the process was made even more complicated and inflammatory thanks to it being played out in the public arena - lots of chest beating from both sides as they attempted to garner support for their positions.

Brookfield has taken a very different approach this time around. The pricing strategy is also markedly different.

The highest premium offered for AGL was at 15 per cent. This time around Brookfield and EIG have ramped up the bidding price for Origin considerably higher.

With $9 a share the sweet spot and the magic 55 per cent premium, an agreement has been reached behind the veil of secrecy with no public posturing from either side. Brookfield has taken a more friendly approach, describing Origin’s management as having put in the appropriate foundations for a faster transition timetable.

Brookfield’s regional boss, Stuart Upson said there was meaningful engagement with Origin boss Frank Calabria and the board, who took the suitors through the business gave them the comfort they needed to bid big.

Under Calabria, Origin has already undertaken to close the last of its coal-fired generation plants by 2025, install a 700 megawatt battery on the site and a large fleet of gas-fired peaking plants.

As further testament to Brookfield and EIG’s desire to get hold of these assets, they have included a ‘ticking fee’ - a mechanism that allows the bid to increase by 3 cents a month if there is completion drift beyond mid-May.

The only party that may not violently agree to this deal is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Brookfield led a consortium to acquire electricity transmission network AusNet last year, so the Origin acquisition will require some scrutiny.

The previous ACCC boss Rod Sims had suggested the AGL deal warranted a closer look. The new ACCC tsar Gina Cass -Gottlieb may now need to take a similar stance on the Origin deal.

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.