Takeover blitz hits ASX as companies swept up in $22.4b M&A Monday

AFR

Japanese financial services giant Daiichi Life’s pursuit of the country’s biggest annuities seller, Challenger, has become the latest in a $22.4 billion wave of takeovers that will push companies off the ASX and into foreign ownership. In a mad Monday for dealmaking, Daiichi Life formally put Challenger in play with a $7.8 billion bid, while the country’s biggest garbage collector, Cleanaway Waste Management, plumbing supplies group Reliance Worldwide and novated leasing provider FleetPartners reached their own critical milestones in longer-running takeover processes. Challenger and Cleanaway are among the the Australian sharemarket’s 100 biggest stocks while Reliance is in the S&P/ASX 200.

Challenger has turned a corner in the past 18 months, gaining regulatory relief on capital standards and growing demand for retirement products, including its annuities. Daiichi Life, already Australia’s biggest life insurer with about 40 per cent of the market, took an initial 15 per cent stake in April last year and has now returned to take Challenger private. Daiichi Life offered Challenger’s board $11.80 a share over the weekend, a 20.1 per cent premium to the last close. The board disclosed the bid on Monday morning and told shareholders to take no action.

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