Adevinta $13 bln bid puts minorities in a corner

Adevinta ASA

22/11/2023 11:52

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Karen Kwok
       LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Permira and
Blackstone are seeking to take the Norwegian classifieds group
private. The offer price isn’t overly generous but the chance of
activist investors stalling the deal is low. With top
shareholders already supporting the bid, minority investors
don’t have alternatives.
        
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    CONTEXT NEWS
    A consortium of investors led by private equity
funds Permira and Blackstone on Nov. 21 said it had offered to
buy the Scandinavian online classifieds group for about 141
billion Norwegian crowns ($13.1 billion).
    At 115 Norwegian crowns per share, the cash offer
represents a 53% premium to Adevinta’s volume-weighted average
share price of 75.4 Norwegian crowns over the three months up to
Sept. 21. Shares of Adevinta traded at 111.4 Norwegian crowns
per share at 1024 GMT on Nov. 22. 
    Adevinta board on Nov. 21 said it is unable to recommend the
offer to shareholders.
    The bidding consortium says it has support from existing
Adevinta shareholders including Schibsted and eBay, accounting
for 72.3% of the company's shares. The deal has a minimum
acceptance threshold of 90%.

 (Editing by Lisa Jucca and Streisand Neto)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  KWOK/ 
karen.kwok@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
karen.kwok.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))