UK's IP Group gets sweetened takeover offer from top investor Railpen (updated)
UPDATE 1-UK's IP Group gets sweetened takeover offer from top investor Railpen Adds details from Railpen statement throughout
July 17 (Reuters) - Railpen, the largest shareholder in Britain's IP Group IPO.L, said on Friday it has made a sweetened takeover offer for the early-stage science investor, nearly a month after IP Group rejected an earlier approach.
Under the latest proposal, IP Group shareholders would receive 61 pence per share in cash, up from 59 pence per share earlier, and a share of the company's entire Oxford Nanopore Technologies ONT.L stake, valued at 10.6 pence per IP Group share.
Shareholders would also receive a contingent value right of up to 11.3 pence per share tied to an increase in the value of IP Group's stake in Metsera — a clinical-stage biotech firm — by the end of 2029.
Excluding the contingent portion, the offer implies a value of about 71.6 pence per IP Group share, representing a premium of about 10.8% to their last close of 64.6 pence on Friday.
Railpen, which manages more than £34 billion ($45.74 billion) in assets for railway pension schemes, holds an 18.4% stake in IP Group.
IP Group rejected the last offer on June 23 saying it "materially undervalued" the company. Prior to that, Railpen had approached IP Group three times.
($1 = 0.7434 pounds)
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru and Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Jonathan Ananda)