Mobile donations company Pushpay has confirmed it has been told that its biggest shareholder, US investment firm Sixth Street, has joined Australian private equity firm, BGH Capital, ahead of a possible bid.
Photo: 123rf
"Pushpay has not entered an agreement with any party, including either or both of BGH Capital and Sixth Street, to implement a transaction," it said in a statement to the NZX.
"Pushpay notes that the agreement is not a definitive transaction agreement and can be terminated immediately by either party on notice to the other."
Between them the two foreign investors own 20.3 percent of Pushpay.
Pushpay shares were put on a trading halt pending details of the approaches, but leapt 21 percent to a six-month high when trading resumed.
Last month, Pushpay disclosed it had received unsolicited, non-binding, and conditional expressions of interest or approaches from third parties looking to acquire the company, but had declined to give any details.
"Pushpay is continuing with a process that is already underway and is in an early stage with multiple parties, to explore the potential for a transaction which is in the best interests of shareholders as a whole," it said, adding there was no certainty any transaction would be done.
BGH said a subsidiary, Oceania Trust, had bought more than 3 percent of Pushpay $47.1m in the past couple of weeks and struck a pact with Sixth Street.
"Under the cooperation agreement, the parties have agreed to work together to consider, negotiate and implement the potential acquisition by Oceania and the Sixth Street Entities ... of all or a substantial part of the shares or PPH's assets and business by way of a scheme of arrangement," it said in a statement.
Pushpay, once a hot tech stock on the New Zealand stock exchange, has a market value of about $1.4 billion, although its core business, church donations in the US, has been affected by Covid and the emergence of rivals.
Investment analysts have speculated a price tag of up to $2b for the company.