Sydney Airport in Australia has accepted an improved bid from the Sydney Aviation Alliance consortium for 100% of shares at A$8.75 (US$6.44) per stapled security.
This will be the third takeover attempt by the consortium following an initial bid of A$8.25 (US$6.07) per stapled security on July 5, 2021, and a revised indicative proposal of A$8.45 (US$6.21) per share as announced on August 16, 2021, both of which were determined not to be in the best interests of Sydney Airport shareholders. The latest bid is reported to be worth an estimated A$23.6bn (US$17.4bn) in total.
The Sydney Airport board has now granted the consortium the opportunity to conduct due diligence on a non-exclusive basis to enable it to put forward a binding proposal. That due diligence is expected to take four weeks from entry into a non-disclosure agreement.
Should all conditions be met then the board will unanimously recommend that securityholders vote in favor of the proposal in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert concluding that the proposed transaction is in the best interests of Sydney Airport securityholders.