Pendal rejects Perpetual bid
Pendal has rejected a bid from Perpetual as it believes it is not in shareholders’ best interest.
Last week, Perpetual made a conditional, non-binding indicative proposal to acquire Pendal by way of a scheme of arrangement for $6.23 a share.
In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today, Pendal said it believed the deal was not in the best interest of shareholders.
It said: “The Pendal board has assessed the indicative proposal and unanimously determined that it significantly undervalued the current and future value of Pendal and is therefore not in the best interest of shareholders”.
This included the fact it had a track record of superior long-term performance, a global distribution footprint across UK, Europe, US and Australia and had strong sustainable and impact investing capabilities.
It also felt the indicative proposal only represented a 0.3% premium to the 180-day volume weighted average price of Pendal shares to 1 April, 2022 and materially below Pendal’s underlying standalone value.
“Pendal’s board and management team will continue their focus on building a best-in-class global investment management platform with the objective of maximizing long-term shareholder value,” it added.
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