The long-running saga that is the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) merger has been one of the defining stories of the ASX boards in 2021.
By now, most ASX investors would be familiar with the neck-cracking rise of the Afterpay share price over the past few years. This is a company that went from rather obscure growth share to a top ASX 20 holding in record time, after all.
But August saw Afterpay receive its complete takeover offer from the US payments giant Square, and really get ASX investors' attention. If the deal does go ahead, it would be one of the largest corporate takeovers in ASX history. It will also likely see Square shares list on the ASX through a CHESS depositary interest (CDI). That will make it one of the ASX's largest companies, at least on paper.
The offer is an all-scrip one, meaning Afterpay investors will receive Square stock in exchange for their Afterpay shares. The ratio is 0.375 Square shares for every Afterpay share held.
As my Fool colleague James discussed yesterday, this has actually meant that the deal looks a lot less sweet for Afterpay shareholders today than when it was first announced. That's because Square has seen its own shares fall by more than 30% since early August.
When will Afterpay shareholders vote on the Square takeover?
So earlier this month, we covered the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) that Afterpay was going to hold on 6 December to allow shareholders a final vote on the proposed merger. But this date was subsequently pushed back. The EGM will now be held on Tuesday 14 December at 9am AEDT. So if you're a shareholder, that's when you will be able to vote on the future of the company.
In its notice from 7 December, Afterpay confirmed that if the vote is in the affirmative, it will allow the company to proceed with the merger. This, Afterpay anticipates, will "become effective" before the end of 2021. The merger will still need approval from the Bank of Spain, so management stated that it was still expecting everything to only be completely finalised by the end of March, 2022.
The Afterpay share price closed at $95.89 on Friday, down a nasty 4.37%.
