Ingenia Communities Group shares soared following a takeover bid from AVID Property Group Holdings, as a bidding war ramps up for the owner of Australian retirement living accommodation. The stock was up 8.3% as of 10:58 a.m. in Sydney on Monday.
Sydney-based AVID has offered A$5.35 per stapled security and up to five Australian cents per share in potential distributions by the end of the calendar year, according to a statement from Ingenia. The offer follows a succession of bids from private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The per-share AVID offer gives Ingenia a market capitalization of around A$2.2 billion ($1.6 billion) based on its current share count and comes with backing from a global sovereign wealth fund and a global financial sponsor, according to the statement. The proposal is slightly higher than the A$5.25 per share bid from Warburg Pincus late last month.
The AVID offer is contingent on a series of conditions, including the firm completing due diligence and the support of the Ingenia board for a unanimous recommendation to back the offer. The proposal is also contingent on Ingenia walking away from a takeover deal secured in August with Peet Limited. The Ingenia board entered into a process deed with AVID and granted it a period of 'soft' exclusivity of up to six weeks, according to the statement.
"As a result of Ingenia signing the process deed with AVID, Ingenia has terminated Warburg Pincus' access to Ingenia's data room," the company said.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing