Australia’s Ingenia Communities Group said on Monday it had rejected a A$2.06 billion ($1.47 billion) takeover bid from Warburg Pincus, the private equity firm’s second attempt to buy the land-lease community operator.
Warburg’s latest offer, at A$5.05 cash per share, is nearly 6.3% higher than its last A$1.94-billion offer, and represents a premium of 16.9% to Ingenia’s last closing price.
It retained an earlier condition that Ingenia abandon its planned $711-million acquisition of master-planned communities developer Peet PPC.AX, a deal Ingenia sees as central to its strategy.
Ingenia’s board told the stock exchange the offer ‘substantially’ undervalued the firm and was not in shareholders’ best interests.
“Warburg Pincus is disappointed by Ingenia’s decision not to engage on our materially improved proposal,” the private equity firm said of the September 14 bid that followed an August 30 initial proposal.
The offer represented a superior and compelling all-cash alternative to the Peet transaction for Ingenia securityholders and set a strong basis for further talks and due diligence, it added in a statement.
The Ingenia board said it remained open to considering proposals that represent ‘compelling’ value, and was confident in the company’s strategic direction and growth trajectory.
($1=A$1.4041)
Reuters
