OnTheMarket says independent adviser recommends takeover by CoStar

(Alliance News) - OnTheMarket PLC on Friday said that an independent proxy adviser recommended the company to be acquired by CoStar UK Ltd, a subsidiary of CoStar Group Inc.

OnTheMarket is an Aldershot, Hampshire-based property listing website. CoStar Group Inc is a Washington, DC-based online real estate marketplace, information and analytics provider in the commercial and residential property sector.

OnTheMarket said independent proxy adviser Institutional Services Inc supported the company board's unanimous recommendation of voting in favour of the planned takeover at the general meeting on December 4.

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 shares traded 0.8% higher at 108.90 pence each on Friday morning in London, while CoStar shares traded 0.7% higher at USD83.85 in New York.

Two weeks ago, Brett Stone, an investor who offered to invest more than GBP50 million in OnTheMarket last year, wrote letters in which he state that OnTheMarket's takeover by CoStar was "not in the UK's national interest".

Addressing three letters to all OnTheMarket shareholders, all estate agents in the UK, and all OnTheMarket employees respectively, Stone had 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 had 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," Stone said back then.

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor

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