Equity Trustees still in play for Trust Company
Equity Trustees will continue with its efforts to acquire The Trust Company - despite Perpetual making an offer to wholly acquire the latter at a higher price than that proposed by Equity Trustees.
In an announcement released to the Australian Stock Exchange today, Equity Trustees said it believed its proposed arrangement to buy The Trust Company offered value to shareholders in a "focused trustee services provider" in which they would be the majority holders.
Equity Trustees' Robin Burns said its board had to consider the Perpetual offer and the impact it would have on its own offer. He said Equity Trustees would formally respond in the coming days.
Two weeks ago Equity Trustees had extended the take-over period, which opened in mid-March, by a month to 5 June. At that time it held 1.3 per cent of the company, while at the time of Perpetual's announcement yesterday it had lifted that to 2.5 per cent.
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