London (AFP) – REA Group, the Australian online property website majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, said Monday it has made a third multi-billion-pound offer to buy British peer Rightmove. The latest proposal, worth £6.1 billion (US$8.1 billion), comes after Rightmove rejected REA’s previous two bids made this month.
“We are genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove’s Board,” REA CEO Owen Wilson said in a statement published on the London Stock Exchange. Rightmove confirmed in a statement that it had received a third proposal that was “unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional”. Rightmove chairman Andrew Fisher said the board rejected the first two proposals as they “were uncertain, highly opportunistic and unattractive”. He added: “The Board will continue to act on behalf of our shareholders and respond to the most recent proposal in due course.”
Shares in Rightmove were up 2.8 percent in early deals on London’s FTSE 100 index. REA made public its interest on September 2, noting “clear similarities” between the pair “in terms of their leading market positions in the core residential business”. The first offer was worth £5.6 billion. Rightmove rejected a second proposal on September 18.
REA reiterated that should it succeed in buying Rightmove, it would apply for a secondary stock market listing in London, in addition to its current trading on the Australian Securities Exchange. “This would provide the opportunity for a wider pool of investors to gain exposure to a global and diversified digital property company on the London Stock Exchange,” it said.
© 2024 AFP
