Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc has made a takeover approach for Australia's A$4 billion ($4.6 billion) Multiplex Group, the construction and property group said, sending its shares up 7.5 per cent.
Multiplex, the firm behind the much-delayed Wembley sports stadium in London, said on January 25 it hadreceived a potential bid from an unnamed suitor.
On Monday it named the suitor as Brookfield but said no value had yet been put on the offer. Multiplex has a market capitalisation of A$4.04 billion.
The formal approach may lead to Brookfield and the Roberts Family Nominees (RFN), which holds 25.6 per cent of Multiplex, offering to buy "100 per cent of the underlying businesses of Multiplex", the group said in a statement.
That would encompass Multiplex's property development, construction, property funds management and facilities management businesses.
Brookfield Asset Management manages assets of about US$50 billion. It owns half of Brookfield Properties Corp, which has a real estate portfolio of 73 million square feet that includes the World Financial Center in New York.
Multiplex's development of the Wembley stadium in Britain has been dogged by disputes and soaring costs and is heading for completion way behind schedule.
Shares in Multiplex, which is being advised by UBS and Allens Arthur Robinson, were up 7.5 per cent at A$4.89 at 2316 GMT. The stock rose as high as A$5.01 on January 25, when a bid approach was first revealed.
