Bidding war to acquire MOQ Limited rages between Atturra, Brennan IT

Managed services provider Brennan IT has bumped up its acquisition proposal for MOQ Limited to $20.5 million, sparking a bidding war with Atturra.

ASX-listed Atturra, who announced plans to acquire MOQ in late June, increased its offer last week from $15.5 million to match Brennan IT's initial $18.6 million offer around the same time. MOQ's announcement at the time referred the company as a third party bidder. 

In MOQ's ASX announcement today, the company said the agreement allowed Atturra to revise its offer to match any new bids before the acquisition’s finalisation. 

“MOQ has notified Atturra of the superior proposal and Atturra has three business days … to match, or offer more favourable terms to, the superior proposal,” the MOQ’s ASX announcement read. 

The revised offer would see MOQ shareholders receive $0.066 cash per share instead of the  $0.06 offered by Atturra’s revised bid last week. 

The MOQ’s directors, who hold 34.1 percent of the MOQ shares on issue, voted in favour of the last week's revised offer, which also came with other amendments to the acquisition agreement. 

This includes the period Atturra has to match new offers being reduced from five to three business days and increasing the period for remedying any material breach of the acquisition agreement from five to 15 business days. 

The companies first announced the acquisition in late June this year: saying it would leverage each other’s expertise in Microsoft, and expand Atturra’s managed services offerings and customer base.

Atturra chief executive Stephen Kowal at the time commented on the acquisition, “we see this more as a strategic partnership allowing Atturra to grow its national presence across target industries. It also provides both teams with further access to growth as there is very little client overlap.” 

MOQ posted a $3.6 million net loss after tax this February and blamed “poor” project governance and controls.

If the acquisition goes ahead, it would be Atturra's third this year, following its earlier buyouts of managed services provider and ERP specialist Kettering Professional Services for $3 million in January and Hayes Information Systems and Communications for $8.5 million in May.

Updated 2:30pm 8 August 2022: MOQ Limited revealed third party bidder as Brennan IT in an ASX announcement released at 12:59pm.