Cleanaway due diligence continues amid EQT’s separate Australian push
Perpetual, the Australian investment manager, on Monday rejected a $2.6 billion takeover proposal from EQT-controlled Windflower and said it had stopped engaging with the Swedish private-equity provider, ending a pursuit that had progressed through three indicative offers since July.
The board of Perpetual said the all-cash proposal of A$22.50 a share, equivalent to US$16.03, undervalued the company. The price matched Windflower’s second indicative offer, but on this occasion Windflower said it would pay the full amount even if Perpetual declared a December-half dividend of up to A$0.60 a share in the interim.
Perpetual’s board also flagged several assumptions by Windflower that it said raised unacceptable risks over whether the transaction would succeed. “As the further revised proposal was expressed as a best and final proposal (in the absence of a competing proposal), Perpetual considers that the process of engagement with EQT has now concluded,” Perpetual said.
The rejection caps a sequence that began in July, when Perpetual said it had received a proposal valued at A$21.64 a share from Windflower. Windflower raised the bid to A$22.07 and then to A$22.50 the same month, prompting Perpetual to provide limited nonexclusive access to its books in hopes of attracting an acceptable offer.
EQT is already working to expand its portfolio of Australian assets, which includes cancer-care provider Icon Group and one of the country’s best-known rugby league franchises.
In August, Cleanaway Waste Management accepted a proposal by EQT that valued its equity at close to US$5 billion. As of last week, Cleanaway said EQT was continuing its due diligence and remained committed to entering an implementation deed on the waste-management transaction.