#UAE-based Network International extends deadline for Canada’s Brookfield offer

UAE-based Network International extends deadline for Canada’s Brookfield offer

UAE-based payments provider Network International has extended the deadline to June 1, 2023, for Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management to make a firm offer.

Brookfield had proposed a $2.7 billion takeover proposal in April, and they had until May 19 to make an offer.

In accordance with the takeover rules, Brookfield has to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Network or walk away by the new deadline, Network International said in a regulatory filing on Friday to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), where it is listed.

Discussions between Brookfield, which made a possible cash offer of 400 pence per share, and Network remain ongoing, it said. The revised deadline can be extended further by Network.

Under the takeover code in the UK, Brookfield now reserves the right to make an offer for Network on less favourable terms than in April.

Network's shares closed at 365 pence on Thursday, down from the high of 397 pence it hit when the takeover proposal was first received in April.

Private equity firms CVC Capital and Francisco Partners had earlier offered 387 pence per share.

Last year, Brookfield bought a 60% share in the First Abu Dhabi Bank's (FAB) payments processing business, Magnati.

Dubai-based lender Emirates NBD holds 6% in Network International. The payments provider operates in more than 50 countries, serves more than 150,000 merchants and 200 financial institutions, whilst managing 18 million payment credentials, according to its website.