Domainfax doing a nice job of pretending to be independent of its own takeover today:
That didn’t take long. Investment giants TPG and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan returned on Sunday with a $2.7 billion bid for all of Fairfax Media that could signal the finals days for the independence of a company that has been an important part of Australian public life for over a century.
As always seems to be the case with Fairfax, there’s a twist: TPG has simultaneously increased and cut the value of its offer.
TPG’s first bid a week earlier was for a chunk of the company – Domain, three newspapers and websites – that it said valued all of Fairfax at up to $1.25 a share. The new offer is the full kit – but at $1.20 a share.
Looks a done deal now (as if it weren’t already). TPG could just sell or list the dogs. It might keep the AFR or sell it too (it’s doing OK as a business but could be a useful rent-seeking lever). But the main business here is Domain plus its loss-leading metros, who are about to experience true cost-cutting savagery American style!
Brace for the new Domainfax: property always!
