Perpetual to acquire The Trust Company

Perpetual has announced it would acquire The Trust Company through a scheme of arrangement, which would see Trust shareholders receive Perpetual shares and a special dividend.

Perpetual announced its offer to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) this morning, but the acquisition remains subject to Trust Company shareholder and regulatory approval.

Equity Trustees (EQT) made an earlier bid in February at $5.28 per share, but was deemed too low.

"The offer has been opportunistically timed to exploit the recent weakness in The Trust Company's share price and does not reflect the longer-term trading price relativities of the two companies," The Trust Company said in a statement.

Perpetual offered 0.1495 of its shares per every Trust share, equivalent to $6.17 per share, as well as a special dividend of $0.22 per Trust share, expected to be fully franked.

Update:

EQT managing director Robin Burns told Money Management any response to the Perpetual offer would be dealt with by its board before formal announcements via the ASX.

Burns said EQT had considered and anticipated counter-offers but was surprised that Perpetual had made on offer for The Trust Company.

“Given Perpetual’s recent announcements about this new strategy and direction we did not think a counter offer would be coming from them,” Burns said.

Perpetual said the acquisition was strategic and would accelerate growth, deliver significant strategic benefits for Perpetual and contribute to its 'Transformation 2015' corporate vision and strategy.

Perpetual’s counter-offer follows an announcement earlier today from EQT that it had increased its holding from 1.3 per cent of Trust Company to 2.5 per cent and it had established an acceptance collection facility for professional investors and wholesale clients who hold shares in the Trust Company.

EQT has not yet confirmed whether it would increase its bid for The Trust Company and will be making an announcement on the ASX.