Australia's REA rises after walking away from $8.3 bln takeover offer for UK's Rightmove
Oct 1 (Reuters) -Shares of Australia's REA Group REA.AX rose 4% on Tuesday, after the property listing firm decided to end its $8.29 billion takeover pursuit for Rightmove RMV.L following a fourth bid rejection from the British real estate portal.
REA, which is 62% owned by Murdoch's News Corp NWSA.O, decided to walk away from making a formal offer for Rightmove ahead of a 1600 GMT deadline on Sept. 30.
Rightmove had also declined a request from REA to grant due diligence access, adding that shareholder interests would be better served through the execution of its standalone strategic plan.
Shares of REA rose as much as 4.4% to A$209.79, marking their biggest one-day gain since early August, in contrast to a 0.5% decline in the benchmark index .AXJO.
"We expect shareholders to be relieved that REA decided to not go ahead with a potential offer especially given our analysis suggested limited accretion," analysts at Citi said in a note.
They also consider that a payment of a special dividend is more likely in fiscal year 2025 and said they do not rule out the possibility of another tilt at Rightmove next year.
Analysts at Macquarie expect the recent overhang on the REA share price, associated with new equity issued, to be removed after the company's decision to abandon the takeover pursuit.
They expect investors to now focus on REA first-quarter trading update due in early November, which is expected to show positive listings growth.
REA had been pressing the Rightmove board to engage more extensively for several weeks, stating that it was compelled to present its case directly to the British firm's investors instead.
REA's final offer consisted of 346 pence in cash, 0.0417 new REA shares and a special dividend of 6 pence per share, valuing Rightmove at 781 pence per share.
Reporting by Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona
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