Corporate raider Ron Brierley is back chasing a piece of the action in the A$2 billion ($2.16 billion) float of Australian gambling giant Tattersall's.
Australian media reported yesterday that Rattoon Holdings - backed by Brierley's Guinness Peat Group and Richard Pratt's Thorney Investments - had launched its second bid tograb a stake before the company's July 7 listing.
Newspapers reported that after last month's unsuccessful A$100 million offer for a 5 per cent stake, Rattoon had reopened a bid, but this time with a difference. Instead of the A$3.45 a share offered previously, Rattoon was inviting offers to sell from the biggest of the company's 550 shareholders.
"We would actually like them to tell us the price they would like to sell at," said Rattoon chairman Hugh Henderson in one interview.
He told the Dow Jones news service this was "unusual".
"But we didn't want to find ourselves pricing the stock. Goldman Sachs' job is to price it."
Goldman Sachs JBWere is Tattersall's lead manager, financial adviser and bookrunner while Macquarie Equity Capital Markets is the co-lead manager.
Shareholders - including staff and beneficiaries of the estate of founder George Adams - have until tonight to name their price.
Dow Jones reported that after Tattersall's prospectus was released last Thursday, Rattoon was contacted by several shareholders unhappy with the valuation in the IPO documents.
Rattoon's A$100 million offer last month netted only about A$2.6 million of shares.
When it released its prospectus Tattersall's announced it would sell its shares for between A$2.40 and A$2.90.
Rattoon will decide tomorrow on how many shares it will buy. Its shareholders have given authority for a purchase of up to A$350 million.
"I'm wearing two hats at the moment," Henderson told Dow Jones. "I'm telling shareholders they should sell because [the IPO] offer is not good enough and on the other hand I'm telling journalists that we're seeing long-term upside in the stock."
