Dye & Durham cuts buyout offer for Link to $1.3 bln after UK watchdog conditions (updated)

PEXA

19/09/2022 24:37

(Adds amended proposal, background)
    Sept 19 (Reuters) - Australia's Link Administration Holdings
 LNK.AX  said on Monday Canadian software firm Dye & Durham
(DND)  DND.TO  has lowered its buyout offer, now valuing the
share registry firm at A$1.95 billion ($1.31 billion), citing
the UK financial watchdog's conditions for the takeover.
    The Australian competition regulator last week approved the
A$2.47 billion buyout, ending a nine-month saga involving
multiple offers for Link's stake in online property settlement
firm PEXA Group  PXA.AX .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N30E483
    The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) earlier this
month said Link Fund Solutions, one of seven UK-regulated
entities owned by Link which managed the defunct LF Woodford
Equity Income Fund (WEIF), could be forced to pay up to 306
million pounds in redress.
    More than 300,000 investors took losses from the fund's
collapse https://reut.rs/3qNEHEL in June 2019 due to liquidity
issues, which the FCA has been investigating.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N30J1EI
    DND told Link in a Sept. 18 letter it could not accept FCA's
conditions, which would push the Sydney-based company to set
aside provisions to pay the potential fines.
    Link said it was unable to recommend the new proposal, under
which shareholders will get an upfront cash payment of A$3.81
per share, a full A$1 less than the offer agreed to in July.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2Z13TG
    However, DND told Link in a letter its shareholders would be
entitled to get another A$1 per share in cash if UK's FCA finds
that LFSL is not liable for the redress payments.

($1 = 1.4865 Australian dollars)


($1 = 1.4870 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard
Chang)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))