Atlas Arteria board ‘could have negotiated better terms’ as hostile holder IFM wins control
At least one long term shareholder is holding out hope for a better deal, even as IFM crosses the 50% threshold giving it effective control over the toll road operator.
The board of toll road operator Atlas Arteria has been criticised for being outmanoeuvred by its top shareholder IFM Investors which has succeeded in securing control of the company via a hostile takeover bid some in the market believe was well telegraphed.
Atlas Arteria told the ASX on Wednesday that IFM had extended its $5.10 per share takeover offer for the business until July 7 after its stake in the company crossed the 50% threshold, giving it effective control.
M&A arbitrage fund Harvest Lane’s chief investment officer Luke Cummings said Atlas Arteria should have pre-emptively struck a deal with IFM as it crept up the register given its growing stake made it “pretty clear they would look to take control of the company at some stage”.
Cummings said that if the Atlas Arteria board acknowledged it was “in a position of weakness from the get go, they could potentially have negotiated better terms — rather than rejecting the bid out of hand and ultimately losing control anyway”.
