The takeover of WPP AUNZ by the UK-based global holding company WPP has jumped two hurdles.
The NSW Supreme Court approved a meeting of WPP AUNZ shareholders to consider the offer. The meeting is to be held at the Langham Hotel in Sydney on April 21 at 10 am.
And PricewaterhouseCoopers, the independent expert, has found that the offer is "fair and reasonable" and therefore in the best interest of WPP AUNZ minority shareholders in the absence of a superior proposal.
The independent expert assessed the market value of a WPP AUNZ share between $0.62 and $0.80 per WPP AUNZ share.
The total cash under the WPP offer is $0.70 a share.
WPP plc, the world's biggest advertising company, is paying $230 million to buy the 38.5% of the company it doesn't own.
The UK company says the acquisition is in line with its global strategy of simplifying its structure and, if implemented, would move WPP to 100% ownership and control of Australian and New Zealand operations.
WPP AUNZ last month reported a 13.2% fall in revenue to $726.17 million for the full year to December. Headline profit fell almost 32% to $34.86 million.
Net sales were down 14.1% to of $612.3 million from $712.5 million in 2019, better than total ad market spend which was down 15%. The result was slightly ahead of guidance of between $607 million and $610 million.
WPP AUNZ returned to paying dividends, a fully franked 4.4 cents a share.
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