Rumours of a potential bid began circulating early this week, when investment firm Archer Capital told the Australian stock exchange that its associate McAleese had acquired a subtantial interest in Boom, of 10.468% of the company, or 48.2m shares.
When Archer made the announcement, website Australian Financial Review reported that the company had made a bid for Boom, at AUD0.52 a share. Boom’s shares leapt on the news, reaching AUD0.42 a share, a 40% rise, on Thursday 3 June.
Boom’s announcement on the same day, says that Boom has not received any proposal from either McAleese or Archer since the substantial holding announcement. It confirmed, however, that it had ‘received a highly conditional, confidential and incomplete proposal from Archer to acquire Boom… at an indicative price of AUD0.52’.
Boom said its management were ‘in the process of quantifying the impacts of the improved operating environment and contract wins on the expected financial performance of the group’. The company advised shareholders to take no action at this stage.
