Concerned the tail’s wagging the dog, shareholders have told the company to be less worried about what happens to the group’s Banking and Credit Management division and more interested in locking in Dye & Durham’s $3.7 billion offer (including debt) before financial markets get worse.
To date, they reckon Link’s been trying to get the BCM side deal over the line, before advancing the much larger group deal.
From what Street Talk hears, Link may be listening. It sounds like the company’s nearing the BCM transaction, although it may not be the 15¢ a share mark. That would be good news BCM’s suitor, Dublin’s LC Financial Holdings, but unlikely to worry Link shareholders too much.
Instead, they just want to see the company’s scheme documents, to know that suitor Dye & Durham is locked in. Link shares closed at $5.09 on Thursday, nearly 10 per cent below Dye & Durham’s $5.50 a share bid price.
There’s plenty of hot money in Link, with the company in play for the past 18 months. First it was The Carlyle Group and Pacific Equity Partners, then Carlyle on its own and now Toronto-listed Dye & Durham.
The hot money, in particular, wants to see the deal done. Link’s biggest institutional shareholder is Melbourne’s Yarra Capital Management with a 6.8 per cent stake.