Murdoch’s REA Fields £5.6 Billion Takeover Proposal That Rightmove Rebuffs – BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Australian real estate listing provider REA Group Ltd. presented a £5.6 billion ($7.3 billion) takeover proposal for Rightmove Plc that was rejected by the UK’s biggest property portal by market value.

REA, part of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s empire, made a preliminary cash-and-stock proposal valued at 705 pence per share, according to a statement confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News.

Rightmove shareholders would receive 305 pence in cash and 0.0381 new REA shares for each Rightmove share, REA said in the statement. The offer would provide a 27% premium to Rightmove’s share price on Aug. 30, the last trading day before news of REA’s interest leaked. 

REA said in the statement that it submitted the non-binding indicative proposal to the Rightmove board on Sept. 5 and was informed five days later that the board had rejected it. Initial proposals are often rejected as being too low.

Rightmove ended London trading Tuesday at 670.80 pence, giving the company a market value of about £5.3 billion. REA’s shares fell as much as 2.3% shortly after trading opened on Wednesday morning in Sydney.

A representative for Rightmove declined to comment on the offer earlier.

Richmond, Victoria-based company REA, which is controlled by News Corp., said earlier this month that is was considering a possible cash and stock offer for Rightmove. A deal for Rightmove would boost the scale of REA, which is the largest player in the Australian online real estate industry and has already expanded into other markets including India. 

REA has until 5 p.m. London time on Sept. 30 to announce a firm intention on whether to make a bid.

While Rightmove enjoys the largest market share in the UK property portal market, rival OnTheMarket Plc recently launched an expansion drive after being acquired by US real estate firm CoStar Group Inc. In other major deals in the sector, private equity firm acquired property platform ZPG Plc for almost £2.2 billion in 2018. 

A deal for Rightmove would add to a range of UK-listed firms that have gotten foreign takeover interest this year, from gold miner Centamin Plc to the parent of Royal Mail. Beverage maker Britvic Plc and packaging firm DS Smith Plc have also received bids from overseas. 

–With assistance from Charles Capel, Angus Whitley and Georgina McKay.

(Updates with statement in second paragraph.)

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