REA Group Tables Fourth $8.32 Billion Bid for Rightmove, Urges Board to Engage — 2nd Update

By Ian Walker

News Corp-controlled REA Group has tabled a fourth proposal to buy British peer Rightmove for 6.2 billion pounds ($8.32 billion), and urged its board to enter into talks ahead of a bid deadline on Monday.

The Australian real-estate advertiser on Friday reiterated its disappointment by Rightmove's repeated rejections and lack of engagement, and urged its shareholders to make their views known to the board.

"REA has repeatedly requested meetings with Rightmove but no meetings have taken place and as such there has been no substantive engagement beyond cursory procedural telephone calls with the Rightmove chairman," REA said.

The company said it is ready to engage immediately with Rightmove, which is essential to progress any proposal and get an extension to the bid deadline. REA has until 1600 GMT on Monday to either make a formal proposal to buy Rightmove or walk away under U.K. Takeover Panel rules.

"We continue to see the potential for us to strengthen Rightmove and accelerate its growth," REA Chief Executive Owen Wilson said, adding that a merger would create a global technology leader operating in two of the most attractive markets in the world.

REA reiterated that it would apply for a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange if a deal went ahead.

Under the latest proposal--which follows the rejections of its previous three approaches--accepting Rightmove shareholders would get 346 pence in cash and 0.0417 new REA shares for each share held. They would also receive a special dividend of 6 pence in cash, in lieu of any final dividend for this year.

The latest terms imply a value of 781 pence a Rightmove share based on REA's closing price of 200.00 Australian dollars ($137.90) on Friday, REA said.

Rightmove said it would consider this latest proposal and urged shareholders not to take any action.

Rightmove shares were 14.0 pence lower, or 2.1%, at 651.0 pence in mid-afternoon European trading. However, they are up 13% over the year to date.

Under the proposal, Rightmove shareholders would own 20% of the enlarged group.

The latest proposal includes a mix-and-match facility so that accepting shareholders can elect to receive a greater proportion of the consideration in shares, REA said.

Peel Hunt analysts Jessica Pok and Melanie Yang write that the latest proposal is still too low and that Rightmove should reject it and let the deadline lapse. They add that REA would struggle to raise its price much further.

News Corp is the parent company of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 27, 2024 10:10 ET (14:10 GMT)

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