Lion seeking Aussie okay to bid for Independent

Lion Nathan has approached the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for clearance to buy Independent Liquor, but says it still has not decided if it wants to buy the transtasman ready-to-drink giant.

Lion announced in August that it had gained the clearance of the Commerce Commission in New Zealand.

The company's Sydney corporate affairs manager James Tait said yesterday Lion lodged the Australian application last month.

Tait stressed again no definite decision had been made about Lion making an offer for Independent, which has had a price of between $700 million and $1.2 billion put on it by commentators.

He could not say when Lion might make up its mind about bidding. Companies including Foster's, Coca-Cola, Amatil and Diageo and private equity firms have also been named as possible buyers.

One report suggested indicative bids were due towards the end of the month but UBS, which is managing the potential sales process for Independent, had no comment yesterday.

A notice on the ACCC website invited comment by today from interested parties on Lion making a bid.

The ACCC's findings are due to be announced at the end of the month.

The Commerce Commission has yet to publish the detailed decision outlining the reasons for its clearance of Lion here.

There was no indication on the ACCC website that liquor businesses Foster's or Diageo had applied for clearance. One suggestion was this could indicate they were not likely to go ahead with a bid.

But Macquarie analyst Callum Bramah did not believe this was necessarily the case because they could still easily apply to the ACCC.

Bramah said a figure of up to A$1 billion ($1.1 billion) had been bandied about in Australia for Independent, a price he described as "very expensive for what you're getting".

A price below $985 million was more realistic.