D-Day for Australians in £7bn fight for Rightmove

An Australian company backed by Rupert Murdoch has until 5pm today to make a full-fledged takeover bid for Rightmove or withdraw.

Analysts believe Rea Group, which is 61 per cent owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, must offer at least £7bn to have any chance of success.

The company had three proposals rejected and on Friday made a fourth offer worth £6.2bn, which is being reviewed by Rightmove.

Rea’s bosses have flown to London to appeal to Rightmove shareholders in the hope of persuading the board to come to the negotiating table.

They have also asked Rightmove to extend today’s deadline to 5:00 p.m. and enter into talks, something the British company has so far refused to do.

Rightmove said it would consider the proposal over the weekend, having rejected offers of £5.6bn, £5.9bn and £6.1bn.

He did not agree to Rea’s request to extend the deadline for submitting offers beyond 5:00 p.m. today. But last night there was speculation.

that Rhea could still get such an extension.

Rightmove has a near monopoly in the UK property listings sector, attracting 80 per cent of searches. Its shares rose 0.5 per cent, or 3.6p, to 668.6p on Friday, still well below the offer price of 781p.

This suggested investors did not believe the weekend talks would work. Last week, Rea expressed disappointment that Rightmove’s board, led by chairman Andrew Fisher, had not yet entered into acquisition talks.

The Melbourne-based group’s chief executive, Owen Wilson, flew to London a few days ago hoping to meet with Rightmove directors. But last night there was little sign that the two sides had met.

Wilson was joined by Rea chairman Hamish McLennan, who arrived earlier to meet Rightmove shareholders. Both hoped to put pressure on the company’s board of directors to compromise.

“Rea has repeatedly requested meetings with Rightmove but no meetings have taken place and, as such, there has been no substantive engagement beyond perfunctory procedural phone calls with the chairman of Rightmove,” a Rea spokesperson said on Friday. .