Australia’s FleetPartners has rejected SG Fleet Topco’s A$760.3 million ($536.85 million) takeover bid and is weighing a higher offer from Canada’s Element Fleet Management, sending its shares to an eight-and-a-half-year high on Monday.
The competing approaches for the vehicle leasing firm add to a run of takeover interest in Australian-listed companies in recent years, including bids for insurance broker Steadfast, Monash and asset manager Perpetual.
Element has offered A$3.80 per share under the indicative proposal, valuing FleetPartners at about A$803 million and representing a 9.5% premium to the stock’s last closing price, while SG Fleet had proposed A$3.60 a share last Monday.
The Canadian fleet-management company has also proposed raising its cash offer to A$4.001 per share if granted three weeks of exclusivity, FleetPartners said.
FleetPartners said it would update shareholders on Element’s proposal in due course, adding it would continue to assess and engage with other interested parties, including SG Fleet.
“FleetPartners’ board has explicitly kept the door open to engage with other parties including SG Fleet, which keeps competitive tension alive,” said Kai Chen, director at MPC Markets.
“This has the hallmarks of a genuine two-horse contested process rather than a one-and-done bid — the market is pricing in a real chance the winning price ends up above even Element’s current A$4.00 conditional level.”
Shares of FleetPartners jumped as much as 13.3% to A$3.93 by 0428 GMT, hitting their highest level since early February 2018.
FleetPartners said the proposal from SG Fleet Topco, backed by Pacific Equity Partners, was not in shareholders’ best interests and did not adequately reflect its long-term value and prospects.
Reuters
