Pepper stays in the hunt for RHG
The Pepper Australia syndicate has revised its bid for mortgage manager RHG and is now offering cash and shares worth an estimated 50.8 cents a share.Pepper is bidding in partnership with Cadence Capital. The bid is made up of a cash offer of 36 cents a share plus one fully paid ordinary share in Cadence Capital for every 10 ordinary shares in RHG.The closing price of Cadence Capital shares on Friday was A$1.48. Based on this price, the offer is worth 50.8 cents a share.The Pepper syndicate has increased its offer from a notional value of 49.65 cents a share.On August 29, the RHG board issued a statement saying it had formed a view that the value of the rival Resimac syndicate bid - an all-cash offer of 49.5 cents a share - was higher than the "implied value" of the Pepper bid.RHG said the all-cash offer from Resimac offered more "value certainty" for non-Cadence Capital RHG shareholders. It said Cadence stock could be illiquid.The Pepper syndicate said yesterday that the Cadence board would approve a buyback of up to 10 per cent of its shares as a way of overcoming concerns about the stock's liquidity.Resimac has three days to respond to Pepper's latest offer.When Resimac made its initial offer for RHG, early in July, the bid was 44.1 cents a share.