KEY POINTS:
Sir Anthony O'Reilly's consortium has suffered a decisive defeat in its bid to take control of APN News & Media.
In a shareholder vote yesterday nearly 50 per cent of votes cast rejected the A$3.8 billion ($4.3 billion) deal tabled by O'Reilly's Independent News & Media and private
equity firms Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners.
For the A$6.20 a share offer to succeed, Independent News & Media needed approval from 75 per cent of shares of the 60 per cent of the company it did not already control.
INM's chief operating officer Gavin O'Reilly told reporters the consortium was disappointed with the vote result but it would not affect Independent's international expansion plans.
"We are going to look at all our options, we are in no hurry to do anything at this point," he said, according to a Reuters report.
"It was a very full price by international standards but I do appreciate that the Australian capital market is at a dizzying height."
APN's chief executive Brendan Hopkins said it would be "business as usual" for the company.
UBS media analyst Nola Hodgson said the vote was merely a "formality" after some of APN's institutional shareholders announced they would be voting against the deal.
APN chairman James Parkinson said the board would be making an announcement on a final dividend payment - which had been deferred during the takeover bid - on Monday.
Prior to the vote, the media company's biggest institutional shareholders, including Perpetual and Australian Foundation Investment Company - who between them almost had enough stock to block the deal - said they would not support the deal.
AFIC, a listed investment company specialising in Australian equities, had said APN had been an "excellent investment" and it did not believe it would be receiving fair value for the underlying assets it had been asked to sell.
Independent director Ted Harris - who had backed the deal - said after the vote that "if Perpetual had voted in favour of the resolution, it would have passed," according to AAP.
APN shares closed up 7c at A$5.87 yesterday.
UBS' Hodgson, who had described the bid as "doomed" in a research note earlier this week, said it was unlikely the O'Reilly consortium would come back and bid again.
But he added that it was not inconceivable they might try for a "PBL-esk" type structure, with some of the assets put into a joint venture with the private equity group.
The consortium had initially offered A$6.01 a share, then A$6.05. It then made a formal offer in January of A$6.10 a share, before making a "final" offer of A$6.20 in April.
Under Australian financial rules, a "final" offer means the company cannot make a higher offer during the current takeover bid.
The revised offer was at the lower end of a share valuation of A$6.18 to A$6.53 in an independent appraisal report prepared by Deloitte Corporate Finance.
APN News & Media has newspaper and radio interests in New Zealand which include the New Zealand Herald.
HOW THEY VOTED
* Shareholders rejected a A$3.8 billion bid for APN News & Media.
* 48 per cent of votes cast opposed the A$6.20 per share offer.
* 75 per cent support was needed for a full takeover by Independent News & Media and private equity partners.
* A final cash dividend will be announced next week.
