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Two non-bank lenders continue to slug it out for the acquisition of the former RAMS loan book, RHG.
After rejecting an offer from Pepper Australia and Cadence Capital in August, the RHG board unanimously accepted an offer from Resimac to acquire all of the issued shares in RHG for cash consideration of 49.5 cents per share.
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However, yesterday Pepper and Cadence put forward another counter-offer worth 50.8 cents per share of RHG, 1.3 cents higher than the Resimac proposal.
While the RHG directors are assessing the new Pepper and Cadence proposal, they must give Resimac three business days to provide a further counter-proposal.
Pepper Group’s CEO, Patrick Tuttle, said the revised offer was better than Resimac’s, but was disappointed that the RHG board never approached Pepper before rejecting their initial proposal.
“We believe we have put forward a superior counter-proposal and would welcome the opportunity to meet with the RHG board to discuss its merits…. We find it very surprising that we have not been invited to discuss any of our proposals to date with the RHG board,” he said.
Michael Culhane, Pepper’s executive chairman, also added that RHG had been too quick to dismiss the initial offer, and hopes the group not do the same again.
“The RHG board appears to have been quite selective in how they have evaluated the Pepper scheme proposals to date, as compared to the Resimac syndicate proposal.
“We believe we should have been afforded the opportunity to formally discuss our proposal with RHG or its advisers so that any misunderstandings could have been avoided.”
The RHG directors note that both proposals involve schemes of arrangement, which are subject to shareholder approval at a scheme meeting.
