Both companies are now in trading halts. But before calling the halt, QGC said it was concerned the market was trading shares in both companies without considering the consequences of any such delay.

“In the view of QGC, it now appears to be quite likely that a defeating condition of the QGC offer could be triggered,” the company said.

However, it seemed the market was reacting to news of the potential delay. At 11am (WST) yesterday, QGC shares were down 7c at 81c, while Sydney Gas shares had slumped 6c (14.6%) to 35c.

Not long after, Sydney Gas entered a trading halt, followed a couple of hours later by QGC.

Sydney Gas requested that trading of its shares were temporarily halted until QGC clarified all of the issues made in its earlier announcement.

Meanwhile, QGC said its trading halt was made pending an announcement.

Late last month, Sydney Gas went to the Takeovers Panel to temporarily stop QGC from despatching a bidder’s statement, alleging defects in certain forward-looking statements and debt facilities.

QGC launched its $A88 million takeover bid in January and last week posted its bidder’s statement to Sydney Gas shareholders, offering them one QGC share for every two Sydney Gas shares held.

The company has also scheduled an extraordinary meeting for this Friday to vote on a $32.1 million capital raising via several share placements to fund part of the acquisition.