This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
EUREKA group has again publicly rebuffed Aspen’s takeover attempts, with the affordable accommodation provider saying the off-market bid undervalues the company and that the bidder’s statement contains “misleading statements and material omissions”.
The all-scrip bid, which values Eureka at $166 million, proposes a merger ratio of 0.26 Aspen securities per Eureka share.
In a statement to the ASX yesterday, Eureka said its board had informed Aspen that, in its view, there are “misleading statements and material omissions in the bidder’s statement that should be rectified”.
“A key area of concern for the Eureka board is that Aspen has not recognised in the bidder’s statement the discount in the Aspen offer consideration relative to recent Eureka share prices.”
It noted in the statement that Aspen’s bid represents a discount of 16.3% to the Eureka share price of 54.5 cents closing 7th March (the last trading date prior to the date of the bidder’s statement); a discount of 11.2% to the Eureka share price of 53.0c based at Wednesday’s close, and 13.9% discount to the one-month VWAP of Eureka shares.
“The Eureka board remains of the view that the Aspen offer is inadequate, undervalues Eureka and represents a discount or no meaningful premium over Eureka’s share price at any time in the past 12 months,” Eureka said in the statement.
“The Eureka board currently intends to recommend to shareholders in the Target’s Statement that they should reject the Aspen Offer and ignore all documents from Aspen, subject to the Eureka board considering the independent expert’s report”
Earlier this month Eureka Group maintained the takeover offer from rival Aspen is “inadequate”, and pointed to a strong set of interim numbers and outlook as to further reasons why the bid “undervalues” the retirement village operator.
