Blue Prism defends Vista takeover bid after investor opposition (updated)

Banyan Gold

06/10/2021 07:56

(Adds detail on letter from Coast, company response)
    Oct 6 (Reuters) - British software company Blue Prism
 PRSMB.L  on Wednesday defended Vista Equity's $1.5 billion
takeover offer, saying it is better than remaining a standalone
firm, days after activist investor Coast Capital opposed the
deal.
    Blue Prism agreed to a 1,125 pence-per-share offer from
Vista last week, but minority shareholder Coast said it would
vote against the bid that it believed undervalued the
London-listed company.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2QU1JA urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2QW4C5
    U.S.-based Coast, which owns about 3 million Blue Prism
shares, objected to the deal in a letter last week, saying the
sale process was flawed and that it believed there were multiple
conflicts of interest.
    Blue Prism, in response, said it reached out to 15 strategic
parties and 12 financial sponsors during its sale process and
that assertions of conflicts of interest were "entirely flawed".
    Coast had earlier said it sent out an operational
improvement plan to Blue Prism, but the UK-based company said on
Tuesday that it lacked details for its board to assess.

($1 = 0.7352 pounds)

 (Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna
Chandra Eluri and Ramakrishnan M.)
 ((Yadarisa.Shabong@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/Yadarisa;
 +919742735150;))