Rightmove has confirmed that Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group has made a fourth attempt to buy the company, increasing its offer to £6.2bn, which the board of UK’s largest property portal says it will ‘now consider’.

The Australian property group raised its cash and shares offer from the £6.1bn offered earlier this week and called on Rightmove’s board to “engage now” after it repeatedly refused to meet the firm, which is controlled by News Corp,

In its latest offer, REA improved its  cash and shares proposal with terms valuing each Rightmove share at 781p, and the entire company at about £6.2bn. Its initial proposed bid of 705p in early September had valued Rightmove at £5.6bn, before it made subsequent bids worth £5.9bn and £6.1bn.

REA’s latest approach means that for each share, Rightmove investors would receive 346p in cash and 0.0417 new REA shares and a special dividend of 6p in cash in lieu of any final dividend.

In a statement, REA expressed “disappointment and surprise” at the repeated rejections by Rightmove and appealed directly to the UK company’s shareholders to persuade them to back the deal before the formal deadline of 30 September.

But it would appear that Rightmove could potentially be tempted by the latest proposal from REA Group.

Rightmove Statement:

On 27 September 2024, the Board of Rightmove plc (“Rightmove” or the “Company”) received a fourth unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional proposal from REA Group Ltd (“REA”) regarding a possible cash and share offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Rightmove (the “Latest Proposal”).

Under the terms of the Latest Proposal, shareholders of Rightmove would receive, for each Rightmove share:

–         346 pence in cash and 0.0417 new REA shares, which implies an offer value of 775 pence based on the closing price of REA on 27 September 20241, and

–         a dividend of 6 pence in cash (in lieu of any final dividend for the year ending 31 December 2024 to which Rightmove shareholders would ordinarily be entitled).

“As it has done throughout this process, the Board will consider the Latest Proposal together with its financial advisers and, in the meantime, shareholders are urged to take no action.

“There can be no certainty that any offer will be made for the Company nor as to the terms on which any offer may be made.

“Any offer for Rightmove is governed by the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the “Code”). Under Rule 2.6(a) of the Code, REA must, by not later than 5.00 p.m. on 30 September 2024, either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Rightmove in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Code or announce that it does not intend to make an offer, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies. This deadline can be extended with the consent of the Panel in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code.

“This announcement has been made without the consent of REA.”