As we reported before, London-listed Blue Prism has already agreed to a deal to go private in a nearly £1.1 billion ($1.47 billion) sale to American private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. However, the RPA vendor revealed this Tuesday that SS&C, a Windsor, Connecticut-based firm had submitted an offer of £12 per share for Blue Prism which is higher than the £11.25-a-share bid from Vista, and would give the company a slightly higher valuation of $1.56 billion based on its most recent outstanding share count.
Blue Prism commented it will adjourn a shareholder meeting on the Vista offer to explore the takeover approach from SS&C. The firm said management still believes the sale to Vista to be in the “best interest” of shareholders and recommends moving ahead with it and also “a further announcement will be made if and when appropriate”.
Meanwhile, Blue Prism shares rose roughly by 10% on the news, giving the company a market value of 1.2 billion pounds. Activist investor Coast Capital is mounting a challenge to the Blue Prism-Vista deal. The firm is in discussions with other disgruntled investors and says around 30% of shareholders are prepared to block the acquisition.
“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.”
James Rasteh, Founding Partner, Coast Capital
