Shares in oOh!Media Ltd (ASX: OML) are performing well on Monday morning after the company said takeover bids for the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) company were now likely to come in at $1.60 per share at a minimum.
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Extended takeover tussle dragging on
News first broke in April that Pacific Equity Partners had made an approach to buy the outdoor advertising company for $1.40 per share, followed in May by a $1.45 per share offer from I Squared Capital.
Then, in early June, the company confirmed that Bain Capital had made a non-binding offer to buy the company, after an article in the Australian Financial Review broke the story.
oOh!Media has now updated the market yet again, saying there were "multiple third parties" in talks about a potential takeover.
The company said in a statement to the ASX:
Having received unsolicited, conditional, non-binding indicative offers of $1.40 per share from Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) and $1.45 per share from I Squared Capital (ISQ), which the Board unanimously determined did not adequately reflect the intrinsic value of oOh!, the Board and its advisers subsequently engaged with both PEP and ISQ, in addition to Bain Capital and other financial sponsors. The Board provided limited due diligence to enable each party to assess whether it was able to put forward a revised proposal that may be capable of the Board's recommendation. After a 3-week period of limited due diligence, the Board has received indicative proposals from PEP, ISQ and Oaktree Capital Management, with a number of those proposals offering $1.60 per share. The revised proposals are subject to a number of conditions consistent with those of the previously disclosed proposals.
The company said it intended to provide further due diligence to the companies involved, which was expected to take up to six weeks.
oOh!Media said there was no guarantee a transaction would eventuate.
Shares in the company traded as high as $1.45 before settling slightly higher at 5.8% to $1.455.
Operations continue to deliver
oOh!Media is performing well, with the company in May issuing an update to the market saying it was expecting first-quarter revenue growth of 7% for Australia and 4% for the group, slightly ahead of projections from February.
oOh!Media Managing Director James Taylor said at the time:
The Out of Home sector continues to benefit from strong structural growth, and we are executing our strategy to cement oOh!'s market leadership. The launch of MOVE is a growth catalyst, clearly demonstrating the superior quality and unmatched scale of our network to advertisers. Since February we have identified $12 million in annualised FY26 run rate pre-tax cash savings and an array of related operational benefits. This unlocks further value for our customers and shareholders. While we note some advertiser uncertainty given the broader macro environment, we are pleased with our overall outlook and look forward to updating shareholders at this morning's AGM.
