WAM acquires PAF trust
Wilson Asset Management (WAM) has acquired the PM Capital Asian Opportunities Trust (PAF) after weeks of negotiations.
The trust was initially set to be acquired by PM Capital Global Opportunities (PGF) but the offer failed to achieve the requisite 75% shareholder approval.
The vote came just days after the release of findings from the Australian Government Takeover Panel that there had been “unacceptable circumstances” surrounding the purchase of shares in PAF by PM Capital and Moore Group (the associated entities of PM Capital founder and chief investment officer Paul Moore).
This left WAM as the only other bidder, it had accrued a 36% shareholder stake and was due to hold a vote on 14 January. However, on 11 January, it increased its bid for PAF from one WAM share for every 1.99 PAF share to one WAM share for every 1.95 PAF share.
Until then, PM Capital had been extremely vocal about shareholders rejecting the WAM offer but the new offer led to it eventually accepting the offer in the absence of superior proposals emerging.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), PGF said: “Whilst PM Capital Global Opportunities fund is disappointed that the Scheme of Arrangement with PAF did not proceed, PGF has now accepted the WAM offer for all of the shares that it held in PAF”.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
Outflows from an Australian private markets fund manager have caused FUM at Pacific Current to decline by $1 billion in the last quarter.
Former RIAA chief executive Simon O’Connor has joined the ethical advisory panel at U Ethical Investors.
Financial services leaders are “all cashed up with nowhere to grow” when it comes to M&A activity, according to Deloitte, with 90 per cent saying they have strong balance sheets ready for an acquisition.
As fund managers are urged to diversify their product ranges, they are finding a faster way to do this is via an acquisition of existing firms but experts say it is not without potential culture clashes.
