(Reuters) -British transport operator Go-Ahead on Monday agreed to be bought by a consortium of Australia’s Kinetic Holding Co and Spain-based transport infrastructure management firm Globalvia Inversiones for about 647.7 million pounds ($788.51 million).
The 1,500 pence-per-share offer represents a premium of 10.2% to Go-Ahead’s Monday closing price after the stock finished the session 12.4% higher following the news of takeover approaches from two suitors.
One of those bidders was Australia-based transport service provider Kelsian Group Ltd.
In a release filed to the Australian bourse on Tuesday, Kelsian Group said it was in preliminary discussions with Go-ahead and that the takeover bid would likely be made in cash.
Go-Ahead has become the latest UK transport takeover target after FirstGroup and StageCoach.
The approaches line up weeks after Go-Ahead said it planned to expand its transport operations and reinstate its pre-COVID-19 dividend policy after a months-long strategic review.
Directors of Go-Ahead said in a joint statement they considered the terms of the deal from the Australian-Spanish consortium to be “fair and reasonable”, and intended to unanimously recommend shareholders vote in favour of the deal.
Under the terms of the deal, Go-Ahead shareholders would get 1,450 pence in cash and a special dividend of 50 pence per share instead of a final dividend for the fiscal year ending July 2, 2022.
($1 = 0.8214 pounds)
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil and Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
