The Uniti Group Ltd (ASX: UWL) share price has jumped out the blocks this morning. In early trade, it is up 4.29% at $4.13.
Uniti has been in the headlines lately after confirming asset manager HRL Morrison & Co. has put in a $3 billion takeover bid for the company.
Now there are reports a second player might be in the running, just to throw a spanner in the works. While Morrison & Co. has exclusive talks until April 22 on the deal, one contingency is the absence of a superior offer.
What's up with the Uniti share price today?
Market pundits are watching the Uniti share price closely today as reports have surfaced a competing bid might be on the table.
Telecommunications provider Vocus Group is understood to be working on a counter bid following the $3.06 billion proposal laid down this week, The Australian reports.
Vocus is owned by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets plus Aware Super – who purchased the telco for $3.5 billion in 2021 – and will therefore likely have a huge cash trigger at its disposal. It provides telecommunication services across Australia and New Zealand.
The group will be up against Morrison & Co.'s enormous $20 billion asset base, which is comprised of sovereign wealth funds and real infrastructure assets.
Morrison & Co. had offered $4.50 per Uniti share in its proposal, an approximate 14% premium to its closing price on Wednesday.
Vocus will therefore need to outbid this offer in order to be taken seriously, seeing as the current bid has the front row seats to examine Uniti's books until the end of April.
The Australian also reports that some Uniti investors reckon the asset manager's offer is too low, and that a Vocus deal would offer more 'unity', so to speak.
"Yet there are Uniti investors that say that Morrison's offer of $4.50 per share is not enough for the group and they believe only at $5 does it start to get interesting," The Australian wrote.
"They argue Vocus would be able to extract more synergies than Morrison or any other pure financial buyer".
It remains to be seen what the group's next move might be in relation to a potential Uniti bid. However, if it were up at $5 per share, that represents a 26% premium to Uniti's closing price on Wednesday.
Uniti share price snapshot
In the past 12 months, the Uniti share price has soared more than 63% but it is down around 14% this year to date, in line with the performance of the broad tech sector.
Over the past month, shares are back in the green and have surged 24% in the past five days of trading.
