Murdoch's REA takes third tilt at Rightmove with £6.1bn offer

23rd Sep 2024 07:04

(Sharecast News) - Rightmove on Monday said it would respond to a third offer from Rupert Murdoch's REA Group for the UK housing portal valuing it at £6.1bn, "in due course".

REA's offer is worth 770p per Rightmove share, made up of 341p in cash and 0.0422 new REA shares. The first approach on 5 September of 705p per share, or £5.6bn, was rejected by Rightmove which said it "fundamentally" undervalued the company. On Friday the offer was sweetened by £300m.

Owen Wilson, chief executive of the Australian digital property business, said he was "genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove's board".

In response, Rightmove chair Andrew Fisher said its board was " confident in the company's short and long term prospects, and sees a long runway for continued shareholder value creation".

"Based on the implied value and structure of REA's first and second indicative non-binding proposals, we considered these proposals to be uncertain, highly opportunistic and unattractive. Accordingly, the Board unanimously rejected them.

"The board will continue to act on behalf of our shareholders and respond to the most recent proposal in due course."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com