Nitro Software, based in Australia, turned down a competing acquisition offer from private equity (PE) firm Potentia Capital, which offered Nitro shareholders the option of receiving all cash, all stock, or a combination of both for the same price.
The business added that it will advise shareholders to approve the all-cash, sweetened buyout offer of A$526.9 million from Alludo, which is funded by KKR, as well as an off-market acquisition.
The events follow a year in which the Ukraine crisis, high inflation, and sluggish consumer demand battered global stocks, notably in the tech sector, setting up software companies to become takeover targets for private equity groups.
This year saw a growth in the PE-backed transactions market in Australia as well, with companies like KKR participating in a substantial portion of the country’s PE-led activity.
Top shareholder Potentia’s offer of A$2 per share is surpassed by Alludo’s offer of A$2.15 per share for the PDF and e-signature software signing business.
The software company has also received an off-market acquisition offer at the same time as Alludo’s approach.
The off-market takeover offer requires approval from 50.1 percent of investors, while Alludo’s proposal needs the support of 75.0% of Nitro shareholders.
The price of Nitro shares, which have increased by around 26% since the conflict between Alludo and Potentia over an acquisition started in October, was unchanged.