By a staff reporter
Pepper Australia Ptd Ltd and Cadence Capital Ltd have offered a sweetened takeover bid for RHG Ltd, after the target recommended a rival offer from the Resimac Syndicate.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Pepper and Cadence said their counterproposal is worth 50.8 cents per share, higher than the Resimac Syndicate's offer of 49.5 cents per share.
Pepper's offer comprises 36 cents per share in cash and one share in Cadence for every 10 shares held in RHG.
Cadence said as the largest institutional shareholder of RHG, it does not support Resimac's offer as a consequence of the higher proposal.
Pepper CEO Patrick Tuttle said would welcome an opportunity to discuss the proposal with the RHG Board.
"While we are aware of the restrictions of the existing Scheme of Arrangement documentation between RHG and the Resimac Syndicate, 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.
Pepper chairman Michael Culhane said the RHG board "appears to have been quite selective in how they have evaluated the Pepper scheme proposals to date".
The RHG board previously accepted the Resimac Syndicate's sweetened takeover offer, which valued the target at almost $153 million, offering cash consideration of 49.5 cents per share.