Race for AXA amps up as NAB takes lead December 17, 2009
"...One question now is whether AMP can, and will respond with yet another price hike. AMP and AXA both last week described their sweetened offer as their best and final proposal. Takeover law declares that statements that a bid is final are binding: they cannot be issued as a tactical device, and then casually discarded.
But NABs proposal, like the AMP one it has trumped, is not a takeover offer. It is a proposal for a scheme of arrangement that must be approved by shareholders, the critical difference as I mentioned being that AXAs independent directors support the slightly sweeter NAB proposal, and intend to put it to a vote.
Is a best and final statement about a proposal that is not a bid binding in the first instance? Even if so, is it still biding if a higher counter offer (or more accurately, proposal) has emerged? The answers to those questions will decide whether AMP is legally able to consider creating an auction for AXA Asia Pacific, by lobbing a new bid of its own that beats the one NAB has just announced. The group and its advisers were deep in discussions this morning.
