Australia’s Reef Casino operator has announced that it has received another takeover bid, from an entity associated with the Morris Group.
According to a Monday filing, Reef Corporate Services Limited (RCSL) received a bid for Reef Casino Trust (RCT) that would provide unitholders with approximately AU$184 million ($120.8 million) in aggregate – amounting to AU$3.70 ($2.50) per unit for shares issued in RCT.
The group notes that the offer ‘is otherwise on substantially similar terms and conditions to the offer to be made by Iris Cairns Property’.
Iris made the bid on July 11th, with the takeover bid valued at AU$177 million ($116.34 million). It encompasses an ‘off-market cash takeover bid to acquire all of the ordinary units in Reef Casino Trust’.
The offer is dependent on RCT’s casino and liquor licensing approvals, including the Foundation Agreement with the state of Queensland.
The group notes that the new proposal by the Morris Group-linked entity ‘will need to be considered in detail by the Independent Board Committee established by RCSL’. This is, in part, due to the new offer also considering the acquisition of Casinos Austria International (Cairns) and RCSL ‘by another entity associated with Morris Group,’ meaning it is ‘conditional upon the negotiation and entry into share purchase agreements’.
Iris has already been informed of the alternative takeover bid, given that the group also has the right to match competing proposals.
The Directors of RCSL, however, ‘maintain their recommendation of the Iris Offer’.
Previously, RCT’s two largest shareholders – Accor and Casinos Austria International – holding over 70 percent of the company’s shares, indicated their support of the Iris offer.
