The Supreme Court of New South Wales has approved the proposed acquisition of telecommunications provider Vocus by a consortium of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and superannuation fund Aware Super.
The consortium, called Voyage Australia Pty Limited, will pay $3.5 billion or $5.50 per share to acquire the telco and take it off the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and trade privately.
The court’s decision would clear the deal’s final major hurdle after shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the acquisition yesterday.
Vocus will lodge the remaining paperwork and the deal will become legally effective on Friday, 25 June 2021.
The acquisition was first announced in March 2021, after one month of discussions with MIRA that started in early February. Aware Super joined discussions on 25 February 2021 and later formed a consortium.
Vocus has not been a stranger to acquisition bids, attracting a number of potential buyers in 2019 and 2017. The offers came from infrastructure investment firm EQT Infrastructure, energy firm AGL and private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Affinity Equity Partners.
KKR and Affinity both offered $2.2 billion in 2017, both of which were rejected citing a forecasted financial turnaround and return to sustainable organic growth at the time.
EQT Infrastructure in 2019 offered $3.26 billion, or $5.25 per share, but the deal fell through after just a few weeks. AGL offered a lower offer of $3 billion or $4.85 per share, but was also dropped less than a week later.
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