By Scott Murdoch and Sameer Manekar
(Reuters) -Australia’s Perpetual confirmed on Monday it received a revised proposal for its wealth management and corporate trust businesses from buyout firm KKR & Co, but said the offer includes commercial terms that still need to be finalised.
An A$2.2 billion ($1.40 billion) deal with the buyout firm for those businesses has been on the back burner over the past two months after Perpetual received a much higher than expected tax bill.
Perpetual shares rose 1.25% on Monday, outperforming the S&P/ASX200, which was down 0.7% in the morning session.
The company said in December the estimated cash proceeds from the deal would reduce because of the tax bill to A$5.74 to A$6.42 apiece from the previously expected range of A$8.38 to A$9.82 apiece. An independent expert’s report at the time said the deal was not in the best interests of shareholders.
Media reports over the weekend stated KKR had returned with an enhanced all-cash proposal exceeding A$8 per share for the Australian asset manager’s corporate trust and wealth units.
However, Perpetual said in a statement that the “latest revised proposal and its quantum are not accurately described in the media.”
It said “the net proceeds shareholders would receive under the revised proposal are uncertain at this stage”.
The sale of the businesses, along with the century-old Perpetual brand, would reshape the company into a standalone fund management firm as it navigates a strategic turnaround.
($1 = 1.5751 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney, Sameer Manekar and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru;Editing by Marguerita Choy, Sam Holmes and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
