Australia’s Nitro Software said on Monday that it would back a near A$500 million ($320.15 million) offer from KKR Inc’s Alludo that trumps an earlier bid from major shareholder Potentia Capital Management.
Alludo made the bid early Monday at A$2.00 per share, which it said was an 11% premium to Potentia’s revised offer of $A1.80 per share.
The offer is a 77% premium to Nitro‘s share price on Aug. 29, which was the day before it announced Potentia’s first bid of A$1.58 per share.
Nitro Software shares rose as much as 19.1% to A$2.06 in morning trade.
In a statement, Nitro said the Alludo offer was fully funded by “equity sources”, without identifying the backers.
However, KKR will provide the funding for the bid, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The sources could not be named as the information was not made public.
KKR did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Nitro is a PDF and e-signature software signing company that says it has 13,000 business customers and 3 million licenced users, according to its website.
Alludo said its bid requires the support of 75% of investors to be approved, according to the scheme of arrangement. If that does not happen, it will carry out an off-market takeover that requires 50.1% backing from shareholders.
Potentia has built a 19.8% stake in Nitro.
Reuters