A number of ASX tech stocks are rebounding on Monday, but one stock is climbing more than most.
That's because it has just confirmed the receipt of a takeover offer from Tyro Payments Ltd (ASX: TYR) and a third party.
Which ASX tech stock?
The stock in question is Smartpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: SMP).
At the time of writing, its shares are up 51% to 80 cents.
Smartpay is Australia and New Zealand's largest independent full-service EFTPOS provider. At the last count, it was servicing over 35,000 merchants with approximately 48,000 secure and feature-rich EFTPOS terminals.
The company highlights that in New Zealand, it is the largest direct connector of EFTPOS terminals to Paymark, the central electronic payment processing platform. Whereas in Australia, it is a payment facilitator providing credit and debit card acquiring through EFTPOS terminals, challenging the traditional payments space.
What happened?
This morning, the ASX tech stock revealed that it has received two separate conditional, non-binding and indicative proposals.
One of the proposals is from Tyro Payments and the other proposal is from an international suitor.
According to the release, the Tyro Payments indicative proposal is to acquire 100% of the issued ordinary shares of Smartpay by way of scheme of arrangement for a price of NZ$1.00 (approximately A$0.90) per share. This comprises a majority of Tyro shares as well as cash consideration.
No terms have been provided for the other indicative proposal, other than that it is also for 100% of the issued ordinary shares of Smartpay.
The release notes that both of the proposals are preliminary only and highly conditional. This includes the satisfactory completion of respective due diligence and execution of definitive transaction documentation.
Due diligence granted
The ASX tech stock advised that its board has decided to allow both Tyro the third party to conduct an initial limited period of commercial due diligence on a non-exclusive basis.
It notes that this will allow it to better assess the relative merits of each proposal and give each party an opportunity to further improve their respective offers based on the information received.
Reciprocal due diligence will be conducted on Tyro Payments given the majority of the proposed consideration is to be satisfied by the issue of new shares.
Though, management warns that the provision of limited due diligence does not guarantee that either of the proposals will result in a binding offer or one that is capable of being recommended by the Smartpay Board.
The Tyro share price is up almost 5% on the news.
