Vocus receives A$3.4B takeover offer

Kevin Russell (Vocus Group CEO and managing director)

Vocus Group has received a non-binding indicative takeover offer from Macquarie Infrastructure and Assets Holdings (MIRA) worth roughly A$3.4 billion. 

MIRA’s offer to Vocus comes via a scheme of arrangement at a price of A$5.50 per share, substantially more than the telco’s market capitalisation of around A$2.7 billion at the time of writing.

Owing to the size of the offer, Vocus’ board has recommended that it is in the best interest of shareholders that it explore the offer, granting MIRA due diligence access to enable MIRA to potentially put forward a binding proposal. 

“The board notes that the proposal is subject to a number of conditions including satisfactory completion of due diligence by MIRA; MIRA securing debt financing; unanimous recommendation by the Vocus board; and entry into a mutually acceptable scheme implementation agreement,” Vocus said. 

The board said there was no certainty a binding offer would come out of the proposal. However, if it did, it remains to be seen whether Vocus New Zealand would continue its plans to list on the country's stock exchange. 

Nonetheless, Vocus has received offers in the past, most notably from EQT and AGL Energy in 2019, of which neither were successful. 

Meanwhile, last financial year, Vocus posted a loss of A$178.2 million, sinking by 623 per cent from its A$34 million in the 2019 financial year. Its 2020 revenue also dropped 6 per cent year-on-year to $1.78 billion.