AMP Ltd. Chief Executive Craig Dunn said Tuesday the wealth manager’s proposed takeover of AXA Asia Pacific Ltd. has to make sense economically.
Some analysts have said an increase in the value of the joint proposal with AXA SA will be required to get an agreement from the independent directors and minority shareholders of AXA Asia Pacific.
“Combining with AXA would accelerate the delivery of key parts of our strategy and make us even more competitive, but it only makes sense at a price that’s economically responsible,” Dunn said in an address to business people at a Trans Tasman Business Circle lunch in Melbourne.
“We’re a financially disciplined company and will remain so,” he said.
The existing offer has been rejected by AXA APH’s independent directors. Under the complex proposal, each minority AXA APH shareholder would receive 0.6896 AMP shares and around A$1.38 cash for each of their shares. The cash component of the offer varies with movements in the A$/US$ exchange rate but will be at least A$1.2071 per share.
AMP would buy AXA APH, including the 53.9% owned by AXA SA, and keep the Australian and New Zealand businesses. It would then sell the Asian operations to Paris-based AXA SA for around A$7.73 billion.
