(Alliance News) - OnTheMarket PLC's proposed GBP99 million takeover by CoStar Group Inc is "not in the UK's national interest", according to letters sent on Thursday by Brett Stone, an investor who offered to invest more than GBP50 million in OnTheMarket last year.
OnTheMarket is an Aldershot, Hampshire-based property listing website. CoStar is a Washington, DC-based online real estate marketplace, information and analytics provider in the commercial and residential property sector.
Addressing three letters to all OnTheMarket shareholders, all estate agents in the UK, and all OnTheMarket employees respectively, Stone said the deal would likely result in "significantly higher total portal costs for UK estate agents, more than 10,000 of which are small businesses".
He also said CoStar's "opportunistic offer significantly OnTheMarket and institutional and estate agent shareholders should both vote against CoStar's offer".
"No deal is better than a bad deal, ending estate agent's ownership in the agents' portal is not the right answer to solve OnTheMarket's problems," said Stone.
Last month, OnTheMarket agreed to a takeover offer by CoStar consisting of 110 pence per OnTheMarket share, valuing the firm at around GBP99 million.
OnTheMarket directors said it intended to unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the takeover at a court meeting and general meeting, and that it expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.
In July, Bloomberg reported that Stone, a former partner at US investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald LP who now runs his own holding company, hit out at OnTheMarket after he offered to invest more than GBP50 million in new OnTheMarket shares last year. His proposal was rejected.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-31/ex-cantor-investor-takes-aim-at-onthemarket-after-failed-offer?leadSource=uverify%20wall
Shares in OnTheMarket were up 0.2% to 109.20 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.
By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News senior reporter
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