Third PE bid lobbed at Insignia

The private equity contest for Insignia Financial has heated up again, with Insignia receiving a confidential, non-binding and indicative proposal from Brookfield Capital Partners (UK) Ltd at a price of $4.60 per share.

Insignia has informed the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that the indicative proposal represents a cash price per share the same as that proposed by CC Capital Partners LLC in its revised non-binding proposal received on 17 January and Bain Capital in its second revised proposal on 22 January.

Insignia has, as it did with Bain and CC Capital, agreed to allow Brookfield a limited period of access to undertake due diligence.

The announcement follows previous speculation that Brookfield had submitted a takeover bid for Insignia Financial, which was subsequently denied by the firm last month.

“The Indicative Proposal is expressed to be subject to a number of conditions including satisfactory completion of due diligence, execution of a binding scheme implementation agreement on customary terms, unanimous recommendation to vote in favour of the transaction from the Insignia Financial Board of Directors and commitment from all directors to vote in favour of the transaction (subject to customary carve-outs) and approval of Brookfield’s investment committee of final transaction terms,” the ASX announcement said.

“In addition, any transaction would, if entered into by Insignia Financial, be subject to approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.”

“In order to determine if Brookfield is able to formulate an improved proposal from that reflected in the Indicative Proposal, Insignia Financial will offer to provide to Brookfield a limited period of access to certain non-public information on a non-exclusive basis. The provision of this information will be subject to certain conditions, including the signing of an appropriate confidentiality and standstill agreement by Brookfield.”