TPG counter triggers iiNet bidding war
The iiNet board was last night evaluating a counter takeover proposal from TPG, triggering what will be the third round in the billion dollar bidding war for the Perth internet company.
Both iiNet and TPG were last night keeping the details of the bid secretive, but it is understood TPG's corporate advisors, board and senior management had been working feverishly on a counter offer and lodged it before yesterday's 5pm deadline.
The iiNet board was understood to be working late into the night evaluating the offer.
The Perth internet provider could come out as early as this morning siding with or against the new offer, however it is more likely the company would go into a trading halt this morning to give its board more time to asses the deal.
It was widely predicted that TPG would add a scrip element to its original $8.60-a-share pure cash offer for iiNet after M2 Group crashed its party with a scrip-and-cash offer last week.
At the close of trade M2's offer yesterday valued iiNet at $9.67-a-share, or about $1.6 billion.
TPG has the money to spare, and insiders were predicting its billionaire major shareholder and executive chairman David Teoh would not sit idle and watch the nation's third-biggest internet provider slip through his grasp.
Shares in iiNet were up 3¢ to $10.00 yesterday - a near record high - on the market's prediction that a bidding war was imminent.
TPG shares were down 15¢ to $8.79. M2 Group shares were up 10¢ to $11.11.
