China's Fosun among bidders eyeing Origin's energy assets

Melbourne

AUSTRALIA'S top energy retailer Origin has drawn interest from at least five potential bidders, including China's Fosun International, for A$2 billion (S$2.06 billion) worth of oil and gas assets it aims to spin off, sources said.

Origin said in December it was going to put its smaller Australian and New Zealand gas fields in a unit, dubbed Lattice Energy, to be spun off in an initial public offering (IPO) this year to help it cut debt and boost returns.

But after receiving approaches for some of the Lattice assets, Origin chief executive Frank Calabria said in March that the company was willing to consider a trade sale, in what would be the biggest oil and gas deal in Australia since Apache Corp s…