WeBuyAnyCar owner BCA Marketplace rejects £1.6bn takeover offer from private equity firm Apax Partners
BCA Marketplace, the owner of WeBuyAnyCar, announced today that the board had decided to reject the takeover offer from the private equity firm Apax Partners.
On 9 May, the company received a bid from Apax for a cash takeover of £1.6bn, in a 200p per share offer.
Since rejecting the offer, no new proposal has been received and the private equity firm has until 8 July to either provide a new offer or walk away from the deal.
The FTSE 250 used car marketplace which claims to be operating Europe’s largest used vehicle exchange, announced strong profit growth in April when it released a trading update which revealed that it was trading ahead of expectations.
Read more: Webuyanycar.com owner sold for £1.2bn
The company said: “The positive outlook reported in the interim results of 28 November 2017 has continued during the second half of the financial year culminating in a strong trading performance for the full year.”
“As a result the business has traded ahead of market expectations with strong profit growth and with a net debt position lower than market forecasts.”
BCA shares were up more than 12 per cent as of 9.30am this morning.
On 28 June, BCA will be announcing its full-year results for the year ending 1 April 2018.
Read more: Competition authorities could be overwhelmed by new tougher merger rules