1st May 2019 10:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - US payment processing giant Visa Inc said Wednesday its offer for cross-border payments platform Earthport PLC is now unconditional after 71% of shareholders accepted.
As of Tuesday, Visa has received valid acceptances for 460.9 million Earthport shares, which represents 71% of Earthport's total issued share capital.
Visa said, as far as it is aware, these acceptances include the 16% of the company's share capital held by investment advisers OppenheimerFunds Inc and OFI Global Institutional Inc and the roughly 0.8% by Earthport's directors.
Following completion of the takeover, Visa plans to cancel Earthport's shares from AIM.
In December, Visa initially made a bid of 30 pence per Earthport share, which was then agreed. However, in late January, US rival Mastercard Inc came in with its own offer at 33p.
Visa upped its offer to 37p per share in February, which valued Earthport at around GBP247 million. The new figure was 12% above Mastercard's offer and 23% higher than the original Visa bid.
Earthport shares were trading at 36.60p on Wednesday, up 0.3%.
The deal is being investigated UK Competition & Mergers Authority but has been cleared by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.