Perpetual has rejected a sweetened A$2.5bn ($1.75bn) takeover proposal from EQT, the second time in little more than a fortnight the Australian wealth manager has turned away the Swedish private equity firm. The board concluded the revised indicative proposal did not adequately reflect the company's value and was not in shareholders' best interests. EQT offered A$22.07 per share, a 2% increase on its previous A$21.64 proposal, which had valued Perpetual at A$2.45bn ($1.71bn). That narrow uplift suggests a gap on value that a token increment was never likely to bridge.

Market analyst Hebe Chen at Vantage Markets said the standoff carries risk for both target's share price and bidder. "If negotiations continue without meaningful progress, investors may increasingly price in the prospect that no transaction materialises, putting renewed pressure on the shares," she said.

The approach lands amid a broader reshaping of Perpetual. In March, the company agreed to sell its wealth management business to Bain Capital for an upfront cash payment of A$500m ($349m), designed to simplify the group. That followed years of investor pressure and came after Perpetual terminated talks on a A$2.18bn ($1.52bn) deal with KKR in 2024. Founded in 1886 by a group including Edmund Barton, Australia's first prime minister, Perpetual has rebuffed takeover approaches from at least three suitors since 2022. A board with demonstrated willingness to walk away sets a high bar for any sponsor seeking to take the company private.