UPDATE: Australia’s Link turns down 2bn Carlyle-Pacific Equity bid

Link Administration Holdings on Friday rejected a takeover offer of A$2.76 billion ($1.96 billion) from private equity firms Carlyle Group and Pacific Equity Partners, but said it was willing to continue talks over the bid.

The shareholder registry firm said it had arrived at the decision after discussions with the private equity duo, their advisers and its own shareholders.

The conditional offer of A$5.20 a share undervalued PEXA, an online property transaction firm that Link holds a stake in, and did not factor in a market recovery, the company said.

Before the offer was announced early last week, Link had lost nearly a third of its value since the start of the year and had swung to a full-year loss in August as the COVID-19 pandemic wrecked havoc across markets.

Source: Reuters