Daily Brief Australia: Origin Energy, New Century Resources, Respiri Ltd and more

• Origin Energy (ORG AU) has disclosed a revised non-binding proposal from Brookfield/EIG. The headline price has been lowered by -1.1% from A$9.00 to A$8.90 per share.
• Under the revised proposal, shareholders’ first 100,000 shares get A$8.90. Beyond that ownership, the offer is A$4.334 plus US$3.194 per share (currently worth A$8.99 per share). 
• While the recut introduces FX rate risk, the average implied value is A$9.01 since 10 November. Both the offeror and the Board seem keen to get a binding offer.

• Sibanye-Stillwater (SGL SJ), the holder of 19.9% of shares, has made an off-market takeover for Queensland zinc miner New Century Resources (NCZ AU) at $1.10/share, a 42.9% premium to last close.
• Sibanye-Stillwater said it was concerned about the change in the strategic direction of NCZ under the current management.
• Concurrently, Sibanye-Stillwater has made an on-market buy order for 10.92% (14.4mn shares) of shares out to take its stake to ~30%. Shares closed at $1.095. ~32mn shares changed hands.

Respiri has announced the successful completion of the Michigan Children’s Hospital’s pilot programme assessing the wheezo SAAS (Respiri and partner Access Telehealth) platform. The initial March 2022 agreement enabled pulmonologists to employ wheezo to increase the engagement of paediatric patients with asthma. The hospital will include the wheezo RPM programme in its current standard of care for eligible asthma patients. We expect the paediatric population to be one of the cohorts to find the most utility from the wheezo monitoring protocol (given this population is not always able to self-identify and flag symptoms) and usage feedback from these patients is anticipated to be crucial for Respiri. We also note the Michigan Children’s Hospital is a part of the of the NYSE-listed Tenet Healthcare Corporation (over 60 hospitals across the US) and uptake, if encouraging, can support a broader roll out.