After two days of meetings, the Irish Takeover Panel has ruled that the management buyout team at Alphyra did not frustrate another offer being made for the company.
This follows the decision by First Data Corporation not to proceed with a €2.80 per share indicative offer for the company, after the MBO team - Rendina - said it would treat any rival bid as hostile.
The panel was responding to complaint from the Federated Kaufmann Fund (FKF), a holder of a 7% stake in Alphyra, which asked that the Rendina bid be suspended.
The panel said that comments made by Rendina to the press that it would view an FDC bid as hostile were 'inappropriate'. But it said that none of the pre-conditions stipulated in FDC's offer related to the retention of the entire Alphyra management team.
Rendina's financial backer, Benchmark Capital, is understood to be angry at media suggestions that they could fund an offer at a significantly higher level to the current bid of €2.70 per share, raised from the previous €2.45 bid.
FKF complained to the panel that Rendina's offer document did not contain sufficient financial information, and that the MBO team may have frustrated a rival bid being made.
In a statement to the Dublin Stock Exchange, the Takeover Panel said there was no evidence that this was the case, and so FKF's request to suspend the Rendina offer timetable was being refused.
The Board of Rendina issued a statement after the ruling this evening. It said that it has considered today's announcement and says that it believes that as the matter is now resolved, shareholders can focus on considering the increased cash offer of €2.70 for each Alphyra share.
