M&G PLC (LSE:MNG), a global investment manager, alongside two significant shareholders will oppose a private equity bid for Hyve Group PLC (LSE:HYVE).
The international exhibition company agreed to its sale to Providence Equity Partners last month for 108p per share, but stakeholders in the UK-listed company claim the offer is undervalued.
“The latest offer for Hyve materially undervalues the company and we plan to vote against the takeover,” Rupert Krefting at M&G told the Financial Times.
M&G currently has just under a 3% stake in Hyve.
Two other top investors in the company, Redwheel and Blackmoor Investment, have also opposed the buyout.
Redwheel, the second largest stakeholder, owns 11.6% of the exhibition group whilst Blackmoor holds a 2.3% stake.
David Stewart, fund manager at Redwheel added: “If you’ve got a level of confidence in the ability of this company to deliver on its targets and strategies, you would not want to sell it at the minimum acceptable price.”
For the deal to go through 75% of the firm’s shareholder capital needs to vote in favour.
However, the largest investor, Strategic Value Partners, stated it would vote in support of the takeover.
Shares in the company are currently trading at 112p, but investors will point to pre-Covid levels as an argument for the growth potential of Hyve.
In January 2020, shares in Hyve traded at more than £6.
M&G argues that moving business away from Russia and high levels of debt from acquisitions have hit Hyve’s share price but they could still bounce back.