Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
£15 and a deal can happen. They will probably have to take this to auction
Looks like the new bid is getting some support. Maybe Coast is stirring the pot to get a bidding war going as he had already built a 30% no coalition vs. the first bid
“We believe that the bid by SS&C for Blue Prism will, if successful, help transform SS&C into the clear tech leader (and therefore services leader) in the fund admin space,” said James Rasteh, Founding Partner at Coast Capital Management. “This is a visionary move and is indicative of a visionary management team.”
Coast believes SS&C is an incomparably more suitable partner for key stakeholders of Blue Prism than Vista or Tibco, whose questionable dealings and relationship with the CEO of Blue Prism (and at least one compromised board member) prevent investors from considering the Vista offer and process as suitable.
“It is shocking to see that the Board continues to endorse Vista’s bid, which confirms their clear conflict of interest that we have been highlighting since day one,” said Rasteh.
No chance the first bid gets the 75% needed. In fact, support for the offer keeps going down as those shareholders sell more. Just today:
Bidco has been notified that on 16 November 2021, Lead Edge Capital Management, LLC disposed of 1,310,929 Blue Prism Shares which were the subject of a letter of intent, representing approximately 1.4 per cent. of Blue Prism's issued ordinary share capital as at 16 November 2021. As a result, with effect from such disposal, Bidco has received letters of intent in respect of an aggregate of 8,284,974 Blue Prism Shares, representing approximately 8.5 per cent. of Blue Prism's issued ordinary share capital as at 16 November 2021.
Therefore, Bidco has received irrevocable undertakings and letters of intent in respect of a total of 20,350,473 Blue Prism Shares representing approximately 21.0 per cent.
@Lsoc85. I sold out as well - dead money at the moment. May buy in again either after a failed bid or if we hear news of another bidder.
Worst case scenario, if you really believe in the company - Vista will IPO Tibco in 1-2 years. You can then invest in the combined company if the deal goes through.
Place your bet as nobody knows if another offer comes in or shareholders vote for the deal (unlikely)
In the meantime the price should do very little +/- 3% from where we are.
As no shareholder vote date has been set, we don't even know how long the wait will be
AutomationGuru, I think you're right - this will take time. To be clear, sending feelers out to 20 odd companies is typical. I guess now they know the going price, someone previously approached may still put a bid in. I can tell you from my current corporate
strategy experience, we get approached almost daily by the likes of Qatalyst with companies that want investment or are looking to sell out. In many cases we pass because we are brought in too late to the process, have no resources to give proper diligence, or we think the asking price is too high.
I still think it might be worth holding a position but maybe take some funds out for a few weeks for better investment opps. I can't help but look at the 8.3 forms and see very little selling activity and folks like Polygon keep adding. What do they know that we don't?
Robotics has its place. I've helped implement a project at a UK bank way back in 2015 when I was in management consulting and saw the benefits first hand, but it is no silver bullet and success depends on the implementation.
Most firms saw this as an alternative to offshoring jobs by instead making higher quality jobs supported by robots handling the mundane.
The main risk is longer term, better systems/ software will create fewer tasks to automate/ digitize. Banks and insurance companies love robotics because its a cheap band aid to fix legacy systems where a core replatform could run in the hundreds of millions of pounds
LONDON - 6 October, 2021: The board of directors of Blue Prism Group plc ("Blue Prism") (the "Board", the "Blue Prism Directors", "Blue Prism" or the "Company", as relevant) (AIM:PRSM) values shareholder feedback and is committed to maximizing value for all shareholders. The Board has reviewed a letter dated 30 September 2021 addressed to it from Coast Capital ("Coast") regarding the offer for Blue Prism (the "Vista Offer") announced on 28 September 2021 (the "2.7 Announcement") by Bali Bidco Limited, a company wholly owned by funds managed or controlled by Vista Equity Partners ("Vista") and has the following response:
Blue Prism's Sale Process Was Extensive and Thorough
The Board, with the support of its independent advisors, conducted an extensive market check over four months that included outreach to 15 strategic parties and 12 financial sponsors (including Vista and TPG) and initially resulted in the submission of two non-binding proposals from Vista and TPG to acquire the Company. After discussions and negotiations with both parties, Vista submitted their final proposal which represented a value that was both the highest in the process and superior to the Company's standalone alternatives, which the Board concluded was worthy of recommendation to Blue Prism Shareholders.
There is no obstacle to a superior offer being proposed, and the Board is free to recommend any such superior proposal were one to be made. The parties previously contacted by the Company's advisors, or any other interested party (other than TPG subsequent to their Rule 2.8 announcement on 29 September, 2021, except subject to certain circumstances) may submit a competing proposal at any time (subject to the rules of the Takeover Code), and the Board, if it so determined, would be free to recommend such a proposal without the Company incurring a termination fee.
The Vista Offer Reflects an Attractive Premium and Value
The Vista Offer represents a 35% premium to the Closing Price of a Blue Prism Share on 27 August 2021 (being the last Business Day prior to the commencement of the Offer Period) and a 34% premium to the volume weighted average Closing Price over the three months ended 27 August 2021. Moreover, the 5.8x[1] FY21 revenue multiple implied by the Vista Offer represents a 42% premium to Blue Prism's multiple based on the Closing Price on 27 August, 2021.
The Board's decision to recommend the Vista Offer reflects its belief that the Vista Offer provides greater value and less risk than Blue Prism's current standalone prospects and potential standalone alternatives.
While Coast indicates that it has "communicated the operational improvement plan developed with sector experts and prior management team members over several months", it has not yet provided the Company with a detailed plan, including the financing of any such plan, capable of assessment by Blue Prism's Board.
Blue Prism's Process Was Led by an Experienced, Unconflicted Board
Really depends on the scenario. It would be a positive to the stock price if activist investors take over. If the same crew stick around we could see £10 with the offer being somewhat of a reality check on valuation
Look at the bright side, while the rest of the market crashes the price of this stays roughly at the offer price.
No deal is happening at this price. There are only two outcomes 1) a coalition of institutions led by Coast bring in a new management team and a new board and accelerate US listing and R&D investment into the business or 2) an offer materializes at a more reasonable level. Either way, Kingdon's days are limited.
Just reported a 5% stake. They bought derivatives (CFDs) to prevent the stock price spiking with trying to buy in such a large position. Interesting gamble to take without actually owning shares to influence voting.
7% out of the 25% needed to kill this deal already confirmed. You can easily add another 5% against from retail as well. Btw TPG statement was very clear, they still reserve the right to make a bid if Vista falls through or if another bidder comes in. Private equity trying to stay friends and avoid a bidding war.
HMI completely sold out now. Shame to lose the second largest shareholder who had 6%+. Indicates they don't want to fight the offer and/or could no longer see eye to eye with the board/ management.
@Break possibly, but for the board to recommend Vista means no viable alternative has reached a late stage yet. I reluctantly trimmed my position down by 30% at 1160 once the TPG news was made
Further to the announcement made by Blue Prism on 31 August 2021 regarding possible offers for Blue Prism, TPG Capital, the private equity platform of alternative asset firm TPG, ("TPG") confirms that it does not intend to make an offer for Blue Prism.
Neel13
Yes, any other party can put a bid in after the 28th
They have 23% from the 75% declared. These are Jupiter, Edge Capital, two founders and the CEO. Long way to go
Sold 3m shares yesterday cutting their position by half. Second largest shareholder pre-deal and now second institution to sell.
Polygon keep adding shares and derivative long positions
@Neel13 Possibly made an offer before 5 PM but its taking Blue Prism board to evaluate today before they issue news. Also, the 28th deadline was for TPG and Vista, other bidders can appear. As someone said earlier, its hope that kills you. Only one institution has sold out, so its not just retail that thinks its worth taking a risk.
Weird, feels like someone knows something we don't. Only one institutional investor sold out 1.1m shares (1%) yesterday, rest are holding strong