Australia’s Atlas Arteria on Monday again urged its shareholders to reject IFM Global Infrastructure Fund’s improved takeover offer, saying the revised A$7.40 billion ($5.23 billion) bid still undervalues the toll road operator.
The response came after IFM raised its offer to A$5.10 per share from the earlier A$4.75, calling it its “best and final” proposal unless a competing bid emerges.
Atlas also responded to media reports that IFM could seek to lift its stake through an “on-market raid”, saying it reserved the right to take action, including approaching the Takeovers Panel, if stock borrowing were used to facilitate short selling to the bidder or into the offer.
IFM’s higher offer comes more than a month after Atlas rejected the earlier bid, saying it was a “highly conditional” offer that materially undervalued the firm.
The revised offer represents a 17.8% premium to Atlas’s closing price before the bid was first announced in late April.
Shares of Atlas were up about 0.5% at A$5.105, as of 0120 GMT, underperforming the broader benchmark index, which rose 1.3%.
In late May, Atlas said an independent expert’s report had found the offer was neither fair nor reasonable.
In its statement on Monday, IFM said Atlas’ independent directors’ claims that additional value could be created through asset sales were “disingenuous.”
($1 = 1.4130 Australian dollars)
Reuters
