Property listings portal Rightmove has rejected the latest “unattractive” £6.1 billion takeover proposal from Australia’s REA, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
REA made an enhanced third offer for the UK’s biggest listings website on Sunday but has stopped short of launching a full scale takeover bid before securing the agreement of the Rightmove board.
However today Rightmove said its board had unanimously rejected the offer which it described as “unattractive and materially undervalues the company and its future prospects”.
REA had proposed an offer of 341p in cash and 0.0422 new shares for every Rightmove share, a combination it said was worth 770p. But Rightmove said the package was only worth 759p to shareholders as REA’s share price has fallen by 12% since the initial offer was made,
Under Takeover Panel “put up or shut” rules REA has until Monday to commit to a formal takeover bid or announce that it will not make an offer.
In its announcement on Monday morning, REA there had been no “substantive engagement” with Rightmove.
“We are genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove’s board and we strongly encourage the Rightmove board to engage,” the announcement said.
It added the latest offer “represents a highly compelling proposition for Rightmove’s shareholders at a significant premium to relevant trading metrics”.
REA said the latest bid valued Rightmove at a near-40 per cent premium to the UK group’s share price before REA’s interest was made public.
Rightmove’s board last week rejected a second offer valuing the company at £5.9bn, calling the approaches “wholly opportunistic”.
