- 84.6 per cent of shareholders vote in favour of the takeover
- 140p-a-share cash offer valued the group at £286mn
Shareholders in Aim-traded Equals (EQLS: 136p), the fast-growing fintech banking and international payments group, have voted overwhelmingly to accept a cash bid from a consortium consisting of JC Flowers, TowerBrook Capital and Railsr. The scheme of arrangement is expected to become effective in the second quarter of 2025.
The original of 135p-a-share cash offer valued the company at £276mn on a fully diluted basis, but the consortium subsequently sweetened the deal with a £10mn (5p a share) special dividend. Although I feel that the revised offer is hardly generous, valuing the group on less than 10 times forecast cash profit to enterprise valuation, the cash exit will generate an 82.7 per cent total return on my entry point (Alpha Research: ‘A high tech fintech payments opportunity’, 8 April 2022). The FTSE Aim All-Share Total Return index has shed 28.3 per cent of its value in the same holding period.