EQT walk from Vocus bid
Stock
Vocus (VOC) $3.75 as at 05/06/2019
Event
EQT left as quickly as they came in a whirlwind 8-days in the data room of Vocus. The Swedish private equity name has gotten back on the plane without a more formal offer being put forward since their $5.25 proposal announced last Monday.
Shares have tumbled 18% today to trade below the pre-offer level with many investors appearing to throw in the towel. The fear for those selling is that the data room threw some curveballs that frightened EQT with Vocus potentially sitting on a soft result heading into the end of financial year. Vocus did reiterate EBITDA guidance of $350m-$370m with an investor update due at the end of June.
It doesn’t look like this will be the last play at Vocus with EQT not the only interested party. AGL Energy was reportedly running the numbers prior to the EQT bid, and Vocus clearly has a data room up and running for any suitor that may want to put a figure on the table. Despite the CEO saying they aren’t running just for a takeover, it appears he and the board would be happy to sell.
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