West Australian energy utility Alinta said yesterday that it was in the shareholders' interest that Macquarie Bank join the proposed management buyout (MBO) of the firm.
It said, however, Australia's biggest investment bank would have to jump through a series of hoops to avoid conflicts of interest before it joined any potential bid.
"The Alinta Board had concluded that it is in the shareholders' interest for Macquarie to be eligible to participate on the buy side of any ensuing transaction," the firm said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.
It added, however, that Macquarie Bank could only join "on the condition that it will not participate in any bid for Alinta except through the sale process organised by Alinta."
Macquarie Bank is a former adviser to Alinta and has been faced with a series of accusations of potential conflicts of interest after it became apparent in early January it might be intending to back the MBO.
Alinta laid out five 'protocols' that Macquarie Bank has to adhere to before it backs former Alinta chief executive Bob Browning and former Alinta chairman John Poynton in the multi billion dollar deal.
These include a promise that Macquarie Bank returns all information it has built up on Alinta through being adviser to the firm, and a guarantee that no Macquarie employees who have had "significant advisory roles for Alinta" be permitted to participate in the sale process.
Australia's biggest investment bank last week issued a statement stating categorically that it had it had no intention of backing the MBO of Alinta without the agreement of the firm's independent directors.
Australia's second biggest investment bank, Babcock & Brown, is also said to be considering a bid for Alinta as are Infrastructure funds Spark Infrastructure and SP AusNet.
