Perpetual passes IOOF with revised offer for Trust
Perpetual has lifted its offer for The Trust Company above that of IOOF, with the Trust board recommending the revised offer and indicating it would vote for it unless a further superior offer was made.
Following IOOF's take-over offer last week, Perpetual had three business days to respond with a superior offer under the Scheme Implementation Agreement in place with Trust.
As a result of this Perpetual has increased its offer for Trust from 0.1495 Perpetual shares for each Trust share to 0.182 shares, with the previously declared special dividend of 22 cents and interim dividend of 17 cents from Trust remaining in place.
Collectively Perpetual's offer is worth $7.18 per share for those Trust shareholders who chose to swap scrip, while those who opt to cash out will receive a minimum of $6.88 per share. In comparison, IOOF's scrip offer is worth $6.47 per share and its cash offer is worth $6.42 per share, based on market prices for last Friday.
The Trust board also recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of the revised Perpetual offer in the absence of a superior proposal, a position it has held almost continuously since 7 May when Perpetual made a higher offer than Equity Trustees.
However the Trust board briefly recommended the IOOF offer as superior after it made its initial bid early last week and before receiving the revised offer from Perpetual after the market closed last Friday.
Perpetual is still waiting for a final approval of its take-over offer for Trust from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which is due to be handed down on 19 September.
The ACCC released a preliminary report on 1 August flagging concerns about entrenching Perpetual's market positions and was seeking further market comment before making its final decision.
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