Nearmap shares surge as Thoma Bravo offers over $750m for Australian aerial mapping company

Aug 15, 2022 | News

A $754m bid from buyout giant Thoma Bravo for Australian aerial imaging specialist Nearmap has sent the company’s shares soaring following three years of steady decline.

Nearmap provides frequently updated, high resolution aerial maps, and currently covers 100 urban areas across Australia, representing about 90% of the country’s population, as well as 80% of the US population and 65% of Canada’s.

Thoma Bravo’s A$2.10 per share offer is an 83% premium to Nearmap’s closing price of A$1.15 on July 5 this year, the day prior to the initial receipt of the proposal.

Nearmap said Thoma Bravo’s due diligence was now at an advanced stage, and the company has granted exclusivity to Thoma Bravo for seven days commencing August 15.

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The company’s shares were trading at more than A$4.10 each at the height of the company’s valuation in 2019, but had slumped to as low as A$1.02 per share in June this year.

Thoma Bravo’s offer rejuvenated the share price with a bounce to A$1.98 in Monday morning ASX trading, but that has slipped in recent hours to about A$1.88, possible due to a lack of competiting bids.

Nearmap said the granting of exclusivity to Thoma Bravo followed the receipt of a number of other non-binding expressions of interest for Nearmap, none of which were considered by the board to be in the best interests of shareholders.

Thoma Bravo is currently in the market raising its fifteenth flagship fund, and has collected a $100m commitment from PennSERS and up to $150m from the Texas County & District Retirement System. The firm closed its $17.8bn-Fund XIV vehicle in 2020.

It also raised $3.9bn for its third Discover Fund in late 2020, at the same time as closing Fund XIV.

Earlier this month it reached a deal to take Ping Identity private at a $2.8bn enterprise value.

Source: AltAssets

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