Australian distie Rhipe’s shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a $400 million acquisition by Norwegian company Crayon Group.
An ASX release (pdf) showed preliminary results of the vote, with 82.8 percent of shareholders, worth a total of 94.17 percent of votes, in favour of the acquisition. Added to this was 5.71 percent of ‘Open’ votes that side with the chairperson for a total of 99.88 percent support.
Just 3.8 percent of shareholders, representing 0.12 percent of the votes, voted against the proposed acquisition.
Crayon Group is a software asset management and cloud optimisation services provider that first proposed the acquisition of Rhipe in July this year.
It took just five days for Rhipe to agree and enter a binding scheme for acquisition by Crayon at $2.50 per share, subject to various conditions.
The final hurdle will be court approval, for which a second court date is set for October 13.
Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland previously said, “This acquisition is part of our global expansion strategy as it helps to accelerate our business, especially in the Asia Pacific region.”
The acquisition was independently assessed by KPMG, which found the value of Rhipe shares to be between $2.42 and $2.73, putting the $2.50 offer within range.
In the address, outlined in the ASX statement, Rhipe non-executive chairman Gary Cox said the company received no better offers, adding “the cash consideration of $2.50 per share represents an attractive premium to Rhipe’s recent historical trading prices. It also represents an attractive acquisition multiple, which compares favourably to comparable precedent transactions.”
In a previous statement, he said, “Rhipe’s partners and customers will benefit from the broader global service capability from a combined Crayon and Rhipe. In addition, Crayon’s offer is positive news for Rhipe’s staff, as we believe there will be increased opportunities to develop new technologies and products to grow their careers.”
The acquisition is set to finalise on 3 November this year.
Rhipe itself acquired EMT Distribution’s Asia and Australia operations in April of this year.Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright © CRN Australia. All rights reserved.