At a scheme meeting held in Sydney on Friday morning, the requisite majority of Pendal shareholders voted in favour of Perpetual’s takeover offer.
A total of 99.28 per cent of the votes cast, and 94.66 per cent of Pendal shareholders present and voting at the meeting, were reported to have been in favour, according to a statement released to the ASX on Friday.
The deal needed to receive backing from at least 75 per cent of the total votes, and more than half of eligible shareholders present and voting.
“Pendal shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposed merger with Perpetual, which will bring two iconic financial services firms together to create one of Australia’s largest ASX-listed asset managers,” said Pendal chair Deborah Page.
Following the vote, a second court date for approval of the scheme has been scheduled for 11 January 2023 at 9.15am. If the scheme is approved, lodgement of court orders with ASIC and the suspension of Pendal shares trading on the ASX is anticipated to occur on 12 January.
The scheme is expected to be implemented on 23 January, when scheme consideration will be provided to Pendal shareholders based on shares held on the record date of 16 January.
Pendal shareholders are set to receive one new Perpetual share for every seven Pendal shares as well as $1.65 cash for each Pendal share.
Perpetual had originally offered one newly issued share in exchange for 7.5 Pendal ordinary shares and $1.976 cash per Pendal share as part of its original acquisition offer in August.
But in November, Perpetual agreed to revise the cash and scrip consideration mix of its offer. Relations between the two companies appeared to have become strained after Perpetual itself received two unsolicited takeover offers.
More recently, Perpetual announced that it had invited up to three Pendal directors to join the board of the combined group. However, one of the directors, Ben Heap, was among the 11 current and former directors and officers of The Star Entertainment Group targeted by ASIC.
