As a result of the approvals, TRU has submitted a draft of its Scheme Booklet to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for review, which shareholders will receive in October.
“This final regulatory approval coincides with the lodgement [Thursday 26 September] of a draft scheme booklet with ASIC as we progress towards a Scheme Meeting of The Trust Company shareholders planned for late November,” Perpetual chief executive and managing director Geoff Lloyd said in a statement to the ASX last Friday 27 September.
The release of the scheme booklet follows the September 19 decision of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that it would not oppose the proposed acquisition based on the grounds of competition.
This approval is subject to Perpetual divesting TRU’s existing ownership of a 13 per cent stake in Equity Trustees (EQT), which previously made several bids to acquire TRU.
Last week, Perpetual announced it had received approval from Treasurer Joe Hockey and that the Monetary Authority of Singapore would not oppose the changes to the holding structure of TRU.
In addition, Perpetual received approval on September 25 from the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office to make “an overseas investment in sensitive land, resulting from the Perpetual scheme”.
“As a result, the Perpetual Scheme is no longer conditional on any regulatory approval,” TRU said in a statement on the ASX website.
Perpetual said it has a target implementation date for the acquisition of mid-December 2013.
