GPG supports fresh MYOB takeover offer

Guinness Peat Group has agreed to support a takeover offer for Australian accounting software firm MYOB – but the price has dropped by a third since another bid earlier this year.

GPG, which owns 13.6% of MYOB, is one of four investors that the consortium of private equity firms Archer Capital and HarbourVest Partners says has agreed to accept the $A1.15 per share offer.

The price rises to $A1.25 if the bidders get approval from 90% of shareholders.

Together, the four large investors control 34% of the share register.

This is not Archer Capital’s first tilt at MYOB; it approached the company in February offering $A1.90 per share.

MYOB’s board publicly rejected the bid, a move that angered some shareholders, including GPG.

MYOB chairman Simon McKeon said of the new bid, that it appears to be an opportunistic attempt to acquire the company at a time of global economic uncertainty and sharemarket volatility.

But the board has not yet made its recommendation to shareholders on whether to accept the offer.

GPG joined MYOB’s share register in 2004, thanks to a merger between MYOB and rival software firm Solution 6, in which GPG had a shareholding.

That investment translated into a 7% MYOB stake, which GPG has added to over the past four years.

MYOB shares have hovered between $A1 and $A1.50 for much of the past two years, peaking at $A1.65 in February. The shares closed last night at $A1.13.