Go-Ahead (LON: GOG) is recommending a bid from a consortium of Kinetic TCo and Globalvia Inversiones that values the bus and rail operator at £647.7m.
The consortium is offering 1450p a share in cash and there will also be a special dividend of 50p a share instead of a final dividend for the year to 2 July 2022. The consortium originally offered 975p a share back in January.
The share price has been much higher than the offer price, but not since early 2020. The all time high back in 2007 was nearly double the bid level.
Kinetic is the largest bus operator in Australia and New Zealand. Globalviamanages transport infrastructure concessions, including highways and railways. It already operates in Spain, the US, Ireland, Portugal, Costa Rica and Chile.
Go-Ahead has bus operations in the UK, Singapore, Ireland and Sweden, plus rail franchises in the UK, Germany and Norway.
Rival
There is a rival, and it is unclear if it will put in a bid for Go-Ahead. Earlier in the day, Go-Ahead management said that there were two bidders that it had allowed to undertake due diligence. The other was Kelsian Group Ltd, which was previously known as SeaLink Travel Group.
ASX-listed Kelsian (ASX: KLS) is Australia’s largest land and marine transport business and it also has operations in the UK and Singapore.
The Go-Ahead board said that the revised proposal from Kelsian was at a level where they would “would be minded to recommend” a firm proposal. It is unclear whether this offer was higher or lower than the recommended bid, but presumably the recommendation would not have been made if a firm offer was at a higher price.
