Wotif the $49.8m offer succeeds………………..
A report by Scott Rochfort in The Age says that Australia’s largest online hotel booking service, Wotif.com, has launched a $49.8 million takeover bid for Travel.com.au, trumping a bid by online competitor Webjet.
Wotif said yesterday it planned to offer Travel.com.au shareholders 50¢ a share in either cash or scrip, which it said was 9.5 per cent higher than Webjet’s scrip bid.
“It’s a pretty big increase for Travel.com shareholders,” said Wotif chief operating officer Robbie Cooke, who also noted the share price was only 35¢ before Webjet’s offer received the backing of Travel.com.au’s board a month ago.
“What we bring to the table for Travel.com shareholders has some attraction, too.” He said Wotif had “direct relationships” with 10,000 hotels worldwide, which would greatly boost the offering on Travel.com.au’s online hotel website, lastminute.com.au.
But there could be some complications to Wotif achieving its condition of snaring 90 per cent of the online travel retailer. Aside from Travel.com.au’s board backing the Webjet offer, the company’s largest shareholder, Co-Investor Capital Partners, has already entered into a deal to sell its stake to Webjet.
“Certainly Co-Investor is not in a position to simply jump ship because there’s a new offer being announced,” said Travel.com.au chairman Roger Sharp, who also runs the Sydney-based investment company.
But Co-Investor is free to renege on the deal if Webjet does not increase its offer within 10 days of Travel.com.au sending out its Bidder’s Statement. Webjet failed to return calls yesterday, and is yet to indicate if it could match or better Wotif’s offer.
Aside from Co-Investor entering into a deal to hand over a 19.9 per cent Travel.com.au stake to Webjet to facilitate the offer, the company’s second-largest shareholder, Netus, also backed the lower bid last month.
Travel.com.au shares rose 3¢ to 58¢ on hopes Wotif’s bid could trigger a bidding war for Travel.com.au.
Webjet fell 2¢ to $1.53. Wotif shares rose 9¢ to $5.34.
Report by The Mole from The Age
John Alwyn-Jones
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