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Rightmove has urged Australia’s REA to make a “best and final” offer after rejecting the latest proposal from the platform majority owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which valued it at £6.2bn.
The FTSE 100 UK property group said on Monday it had consulted “the full spectrum of its shareholder base” and held meetings with REA but concluded the cash and shares offer was “unattractive” and continued to “materially undervalue Rightmove”.
The company signalled it was against extending the so-called put-up-or-shut-up deadline imposed by UK takeover rules at 5pm on Monday, giving REA just hours to bring forward a fifth bid or walk away. Rightmove shares fell 3 per cent in early trading in London.
“We respect REA and the success they have achieved in their domestic market. However, we remain confident in the standalone future of Rightmove,” said Andrew Fisher, Rightmove’s chair.
If REA wants to make another bid, it should submit “a best and final proposal” before 5pm, he added.
The Australian group, which is independently listed but majority owned by News Corp, made a fourth offer for Rightmove on Friday at an implied value of 781p per share, which REA said was a 41 per cent premium to the UK group’s share price prior to the takeover interest becoming public this month.
It has pledged to maintain a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange if the deal goes through to allow UK investors easy access to the stock.
Rightmove has a dominant share of the UK property listings market but is pushing into new areas such as mortgage services and commercial property in search of further growth.
REA has said its experience could help boost those efforts. Chief executive Owen Wilson told the Financial Times last week that his company was “much further progressed and much more successful” in key add-on business areas.
REA has criticised Rightmove for its lack of engagement over previous offers. Rightmove on Monday said the two companies’ management teams had had “numerous interactions” over many years, “including discussions around strategy and best practice as recently as June”.
The company said “Rightmove has taken every phone call that REA has made since its interest was first made public” and that its level of engagement was “customary and appropriate” for an unsolicited approach.
The two companies’ chairs, Fisher and Hamish McLennan, and their management teams had met over recent days, Rightmove added.
REA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
