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Equiniti plans rights issue for takeover of Wells Fargo's share registration business

Published: 08:52 12 Sep 2017 BST

Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo has said it wants to focus on growth areas of the business

Equiniti Group (LON:EQN) has announced further details of its plans to raise £122mln through a rights issue to support its proposed takeover of Wells Fargo's share registration business.

Equiniti, a share registration and investor services company, will offer 4,309,150 new shares at 190p each by way of a fully underwritten rights issue to qualifying shareholders. The issue price represents a discount of 31.7% to the share price at the close of markets on 11 September.

Proceeds of the rights issues will used to help fund the group’s planned US$227mln acquisition of Wells Fargo Share Registration & Services (WFSS). Equiniti will also use £120mln of debt facilities to finance the integration costs of the takeover.    

The deal is subject to approval by shareholders at a general meeting on 28 September.

Equiniti said its directors unanimously consider that the acquisition to be in the best interests of the company and recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the deal.

The group expects the new shares in the rights issue to be admitted to the London Stock Exchange on 29 September following approval by the stock exchange and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Shares edged up 0.12% to 296.40p in morning trading. 

Equiniti announced its plans in July, saying it expects the acquisition to boost its earnings in the first year of its ownership.

Wells Fargo's share registrar arm is the third largest in America, providing shareholder services to more than 1,200 firms in the country with clients including Hewlett-Packard, General Electric and Berkshire Hathaway. Wells Fargo has said it wants to focus on growth areas of the business.

 

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