KCOM’s £627m takeover from telecoms investment firm Macquarie has been overwhelmingly approved by shareholders.
The decision, which came on the back of a week-long auction for the Hull broadband provider, was announced after shareholders cast their vote on the offer on Friday morning.
The offer was backed by 82.7 per cent of voting shareholders, bringing an end to what has been a three-month-long takeover saga.
A statement released online said: “The boards of KCOM and MEIF 6 Fibre are pleased to announce that at the reconvened court meeting and the reconvened general meeting held earlier today in connection with the acquisition, the scheme was approved by the requisite majority of KCOM scheme shareholders…
“KCOM Shareholders voted at the reconvened general meeting to pass the general meeting resolution to, amongst others, implement the Scheme.”
A total of 5,130 shareholders at KCOM took part in the vote.
Of those, 4,242 voted in support of Macquarie’s £627m takeover offer, with just 888 (17.3 per cent) voting against it.
The KCOM takeover story first emerged in late April, when rival bidder USS (Universities Superannuation Scheme) announced it had bid £504m for the broadband firm.
With just days to go until shareholders at KCOM voted on that offer though, Macquarie came in with a bigger, £563m bid.
That offer halted the USS vote, and weeks later the British Takeover Panel ordered a week-long auction to decide which of the two bidders would win the race for KCOM.
By the end of the auction, Macquarie’s £627m bid proved to be too much for USS, which finished its bidding at £589m.
Shareholders at KCOM voted on Macquarie’s bid on Friday morning, and approved the offer.
The takeover offer represented 120.3p per KCOM share.
It is an offer however which was criticised by one shareholder, who bought his shares at 225p each when KCOM first floated on the Stock Market back in 1999.
He said: “I have had my shares since KCOM floated. At one point they went as high as £17 per share.
“When KCOM first floated, it was originally advertised saying the idea was for the shares to stay as local as possible. If this takeover goes through, that will not happen.”
KCOM’s buyer Macquarie is one of the world’s biggest asset managers, and handles more than €110bn of assets across the globe.
More importantly though, it is a major investor and owner of telecommunications infrastructure.
MIRA manages assets ranging from fibre and cable broadband networks, broadband infrastructure, secure mobile networks, pay-TV and mobile towers.
It supplies infrastructure used by all of the UK’s major broadcasters and mobile network providers, and also owns telecoms and internet firms in Denmark and Poland.
The wider Macquarie Group is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services company.
It employs more than 14,000 staff in 25 countries across the globe, and holds almost $500 billion in assets.
