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The board of Superloop (ASX: SLC) has taken little time in assessing a $467 million takeover bid proposed by Aussie Broadband (ASX: ABB) this morning, describing it as "opportunistic" and fundamentally devaluing the challenger telco and internet service provider.
"Consequently, the board does not intend to engage with ABB on the indicative proposal. Superloop shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the proposal," the company said.
The board has rejected Aussie Broadband's indicative and non-binding scrip-based offer, which based on Friday's closing price for ABB shares would value Superloop at $0.95 per share. SLC shares are now trading above that level at $1 each.
This offer price would represent an 8.6 per cent premium to Superloop's closing share price on Friday, but the implied valuation would still be short of the Queensland Investment Corporation's (QIC) $494 million bid in 2019 which eventually collapsed.
Superloop has also raised considerable capital since then, including a $110 million raise in 2021 for the acquisition of home broadband internet provider Exetel. A spokesperson for the company has confirmed that $192.2 million in capital has been raised in total since the QIC offer.
Whereas in FY19 the group traded at a $72 million loss, in its most recent results the Brisbane-based company saw its finances back in the black with a $1.2 million profit for the December half.
"Superloop achieved another period of strong financial performance, delivering record organic revenue and net new customer growth over the period," the company said in its statement this afternoon.
"The 2024 financial year is the first of our three-year ‘Double Down’ strategy intended to double the revenue in the business whilst expanding margins and the performance in this first half demonstrates its execution is tracking strongly against this plan."
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