Hargreaves Lansdown has rejected a takeover bid by a consortium of private equity investors including CVC and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, the company confirmed today.
The do-it-yourself investment platform rejected the offer from the group of investors last month, which priced the firm at £4.7bn, or 985p per share, a stock exchange notice revealed today.
Hargreaves Lansdown currently sits at 979p per share, after spiking by five per cent towards the end of trading today as rumours began to emerge of a potential sale.
When the group of investors made the offer for Hargreaves on 26 April, the firm’s stock price sat at 755p, but even before the strong performance today, its share price has risen 23.6 per cent over the last month.
The rising stock price came following a quarterly trading update that revealed that the investment provider saw total revenue jump to £199.7m in the first three months of the year, up from £188.1m.
Hargreaves Lansdown said the boost came as a result of “increased dealing volumes and higher platform revenue”.
While currently in the FTSE 250, the investment firm’s recent strong performance would push it into the FTSE 100 at the next London Stock Exchange re-balancing, sitting as the 97th largest publicly listed company in the UK as of last week.
Hargreaves Lansdown was relegated from the FTSE 100 last November for the first time since it joined the blue chip index in 2011.
If taken over, the investment firm would join a long line of companies departing from the London Stock Exchange in recent months.
The group bidding for the company consists of private equity giants CVC, Nordic Capital, and Platinum Ivy, the latter of which is owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
CVC in particular has been on a takeover rampage in the UK, earlier this year acquiring Runescape developer Jagex for £910m.
According to the UK Takeover Code, the private equity group must either announce a firm intention to make an offer or state it does not intend to make an offer by 19 June.
“There can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made,” said the group of investors, adding: “A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.”