AMP sweetens AXA offer
AMP and AXA SA’s bid to takeover AXA’s local operations has progressed, with the two companies sweetening their offer to a reluctant AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (AXA AP).
AMP wants to see a response from AXA AP by December 21, with ambitions to have the deal completed by May next year.
Independent directors of AXA AP knocked back the first approach from the two companies in November. The board will now consider a revised proposal that sees the cash component raised by 54 cents per share and fixed at $1.92. The initial scrip proposal of 0.6896 AMP shares for each AXA AP share remains unchanged.
“The independent board committee of AXA APH intends to take the time to carefully consider this revised proposal and will provide an update to the market when this assessment is completed,” AXA AP’s statement to the Australian Securities Exchange said.
“As a result, a transaction may or may not eventuate from the revised proposal and AXA APH shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the revised proposal.”
The revised offer implies an offer price of $6.22 per AXA APH share, and places a value of $4,413 million on the group’s Australian and New Zealand businesses, and $9,626 million for the group’s Asian operations.
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