Perpetual to talk to KKR
The board of Perpetual has issued an initial rejection of the takeover bid by New York-based private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), but has agreed to “further exploratory discussions”.
In an announcement released on the Australian Securities Exchange today, Perpetual said the board had given initial consideration to KKR’s indicative, conditional and non-binding proposal and believed the price on offer of between $38 and $40 a share did not reflect the company’s value.
“Nevertheless, the Board believes that shareholders’ interests are best served by conducting exploratory discussions with KKR in order to assess better the indicative proposal which at this point remains incomplete,” the Perpetual announcement said. It added that these discussions should allow the Board to establish if an offer that would deliver acceptable value to Perpetual’s shareholders was likely to be formulated.
The announcement said that as part of the exploratory discussions, Perpetual was prepared to provide KKR with limited financial information subject to appropriately confidentiality arrangements being put in place.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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