MySale rejects Frasers Group takeover bid

MySale’s directors have rejected a takeover bid from Frasers Group, whose offer to acquire the remaining shares of the Australian marketplace for 2p per share was said to undervalue the business. 

Frasers had previously acquired 270,666,650 MySale Shares at 2p per share on 29 June 2022, becoming MySale’s largest shareholder with a 29% stake in the business. 

Last month, Frasers made another cash offer to acquire a 100% stake in the marketplace, again for a price of 2p per share in cash, or a value of £13.6m.

At the time, Frasers said it had “ambitions to increase its presence in Australia and the surrounding regions and believes that this can be better achieved via acquisitions than organically”.

Following Fraser’s latest offer, however, the board of MySale rejected the move, noting the offer represents the minimum price Frasers could have offered under the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, given its previous purchase in June. 

MySale said it did not consider the offer to be “fair or reasonable”, and has therefore recommended its shareholders reject the offer.

In a statement, MySale’s board said: “The MySale directors are of the view that a price of 2 pence per MySale Share does not reflect an adequate value or premium for control of MySale and therefore undervalues MySale and its prospects. 

“Accordingly, the MySale directors, who have been so advised by Singer Capital Markets as to the financial terms of the offer, do not consider the terms of the offer to be fair and reasonable and therefore recommend that MySale shareholders do not accept the offer, just as they will not accept the offer in respect of their own shareholdings in MySale.”