Perpetual motion
Soul Patts' takeover bid probably won't succeed, at least under the current proposal, but Perpetual is also unlikely to continue in its current form.
Perpetual and Washington H. Soul Pattinson combined have two-and-half centuries of corporate history behind them. Both are a long way from where they started.
Perpetual was a trustee company co-founded by former prime minister Edmund Barton and media proprietor John Fairfax, together with other corporate luminaries of that era. Soul Patts was two companies, a merchant and a pharmacy, brought together by an outbreak of bubonic plague.
They are both part of the fabric of corporate Sydney and a coming together would be a suitable continuation of history. It’s also unlikely to happen, at least as projected in Soul Patts’ $3 billion offer.
As Jack Derwin wrote today, analysts are cool on Soul Patts' cleverly structured $3 billion bid for Perpetual, which has already been rejected out of hand. But the market reaction today in both companies' shares suggests there is more to come in this story.
