Nielsen Holdings Plc rejected an acquisition proposal from a private equity consortium that had been close to acquiring the company, saying the offer significantly undervalued the company, sending shares plummeting.
Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. had teamed up for a potential leveraged buyout of Nielsen, Bloomberg News had previously reported, that had been days away from being announced. Shares had soared last week on hopes of a deal.
The proposal had valued the company at $25.40 per share, a price that doesn’t “adequately compensate shareholders for Nielsen’s growth prospects,” the company said in a statement Sunday. Windacre Partnership LLC, one of its largest shareholders, said in a separate statement it supported the rejection of the offer and that the “intrinsic” value of Nielsen is more than $40 per share.
WindAcre, based in Houston, informed Nielsen that it would not support the proposed transaction and that it planned to accumulate the shares needed to block the deal. For the deal to be approved, Nielsen would have needed holders of at least 75% of its stock not involved in the deal to vote in favor of it, according to the United Kingdom takeover code where the company is domiciled.
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