The board of Pendal Group, a Sydney-based multiboutique manager with A$135.7 billion ($101 billion) in assets under management, said Tuesday it had unanimously rejected Perpetual Ltd.'s A$2.4 billion takeover bid.
Pendal said in an announcement on the Australian stock exchange that Perpetual's April 4 offer of A$6.23 in Perpetual shares and cash for each outstanding Pendal share significantly undervalued both the current and future value of the firm.
Pendal noted that the indicative value of A$6.23 was based on an April 1 closing price of A$34.23 per Perpetual share. As of the close of trading on Monday, the stock price of the Sydney-based money manager with more than A$100 billion in AUM had fallen to A$32.28, lowering the indicative value of the company's takeover bid to A$5.97 in stock and cash per Pendal share.
Pendal's announcement Tuesday cited its "compelling" global distribution footprint and the strength of its offerings in fast-growing market segments such as sustainable and impact investing as factors pointing to a higher value for the firm than what Perpetual had offered.
In Tuesday trading, Perpetual's shares slipped to A$32.15 from A$32.28.
Pendal's shares, meanwhile, edged down to A$5.29 from A$5.30 — the same level the takeover target's stock price surged to on April 4 when Perpetual's bid first came to light, up from an April 1 close of A$4.48.
A spokesman for Perpetual said the company had issued no immediate statement in response to Pendal's rejection of its bid.
