Wilson Asset Management launches bid for Platinum Capital, competing with L1 Capital
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The news: Wilson Asset Management has submitted an acquisition bid for listed investment company Platinum Capital, putting it head to head with L1 Capital's takeover offer.
The context: Platinum Capital said via an ASX filing on Thursday evening that it has received an unsolicited confidential, non-binding indicative proposal from Wilson Asset Management, which would see Wilson manage Platinum’s investment portfolio using the investment strategy Wilson employs.
This would include the research driven and market driven investment processes, with the investment strategy of the company to have a focus on mid, large and mega-cap companies in global markets.
On 5 August, Platinum Capital announced that received non-binding indicative proposal from L1 Capital which would allow L1 Capital to manage Platinum Capital’s investment portfolio through its L1 Capital Global Long Short investment strategy.
In September last year, Capital Brief revealed that Wilson Asset Management founder Geoff Wilson was examining a potential play for Platinum Asset Management, and that annuities provider Challenger had left the door open to a possible bid having been rebuffed in an earlier approach for the fund manager. At the time, sources close to the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters confirmed Wilson and David Paradice's Paradice Investment Management had both held separate exploratory conversations with Platinum Asset Management. But those talks did not lead to any formal proposals at the time.
Platinum Asset Management has since agreed to a merger with L1 Capital, setting out terms in early July.
The ASX filing says that the Platinum Capital board will assess the proposals received from both L1 Capital and Wilson Asset Management.
Correction: An earlier version of this briefing implied that Wilson Asset Management had made a bid for Platinum Asset Management, which is merging with L1 Capital. It had been updated to clarify that the bid is for Platinum Capital.
The source: ASX filing
