The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by 0.25% today to 7,425 points.
Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:
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Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD)
The Sydney Airport share price rose 4.6% today after receiving another takeover offer from a consortium of investors including IFM Investors.
This new offer is $8.75 cash per Sydney Airport share. This is a higher offer than the previous offers of $8.25 per share and $8.45 per share. Those offers were rejected by Sydney Airport.
The terms of this new offer are consistent with the proposal from the consortium last month.
After taking advice and considering all of the relevant factors, the ASX 200 share has decided to grant the consortium due diligence access on a non-exclusive basis so that the consortium can put forward a binding proposal. The due diligence is expected to take four weeks from entry into a non-disclosure agreement.
In regards to accepting the offer or not, Sydney Airport said:
Should the consortium make a binding offer at $8.75 cash per stapled security then, subject to the parties entering into a binding scheme implementation agreement on terms acceptable to Sydney Airport (including as to the timeframe to implementation), and Sydney Airport having completed an assessment of the conditionality of the binding offer to its satisfaction, the current intention of the boards is to unanimously recommend that securityholders vote in favour of the proposal in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert concluding that the proposed transaction is in the best interests of Sydney Airport securityholders.
The ASX 200 share noted that there is no certainty this will lead to a binding offer.
Nuix Ltd (ASX: NXL)
The Nuix share price increased more than 3% today after announcing an acquisition.
Nuix said that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Topos Labs Inc business, which is based in Boston. It's a developer of natural language processing (NLP) software that helps computer systems better understand text and spoken words at speed and scale.
The ASX 200 business said that Topo's early-stage platform is already able to automate accurate analysis and classification of complex content in documents, electronic communications, and social media. Nuix said that NLP models can be defined directly by business users through the no-code user interface, reducing the time required to identify risk in an organisation's data. Topos is then also able to present the risk assessment of confidential, sensitive, and regulated content in user-friendly dashboards.
The initial cost of the acquisition is US$5 million on financial close, with the potential for a further US$20 million comprised of $18.5 million cash and up to US$1.5 million in performance rights payable over 30 months.
Nuix engineering founder and chief scientist David Sitsky said:
The acquisition of Topos is an exciting evolution in Nuix's journey. Integrating the Nuix engine's ability to process vast quantities of unstructured data with the next generation NLP capabilities of Topos will be game-changing for Nuix's product portfolio.
Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX: IPL)
The Incitec Pivot share price rose 1.5% after providing an update about its Waggaman ammonia plant in Louisiana and the impact of Hurricane Ida.
After running at "nameplate capacity" since the re-start at the end of May, the Waggaman plant was brought down on 28 August 2021 in anticipation of the hurricane to ensure the safety of its people and to protect the ASX 200 share's plant against damage.
Inspections undertaken since the hurricane have not identified any material damage to the plant. The plant's re-start has been awaiting restoration of high voltage industrial power and utilities from third party providers. Factoring in the anticipated restoration of power and utilities, the total outage is expected to be approximately four weeks from the date the plant was brought down.
Based on current market prices for ammonia, and the planned restart schedule, the loss of earnings before interest (EBIT) is approximately US$28 million, or $21 million in net profit after tax terms.
