Shareholders Repel PushPay Acquisition Plan

Shareholders of mobile payments company Pushpay Holdings have quietly dropped a $1.5 billion takeover bid by two of its biggest shareholders, and its board continues to defend its support for the deal.

At this morning’s meeting, the bid fell well short of one of the key voting criteria and was approved with 75% of the votes by shareholders unrelated to the bid.

According to the final tally, only 56% of unlinked stocks voted yes.

Another criterion is that at least 50% of Pushpay’s total outstanding shares vote in favor, which the company says has been met.

Independent Board Directors Repeatedly Offer supportsaid the company’s change in strategy and revised earnings forecasts were subject to various risks, which made the proposal the best it could be.

At the hushed meeting, several shareholders questioned whether the directors had lost touch with the company and its management, and whether they should resign given the deal’s “overwhelming loss”. Asked.

Board Chairman Graham Shaw refuted the explanation.

“I challenge it [it was] Overwhelming defeat.

“The reality is that the majority of our shareholders still vote in favor of this scheme, which does not meet one of the required criteria.

“So I honestly can’t accept that it’s a failure of the board.”

As a result, he said, there was no indication that the director had resigned, lost focus on the company or had a “sell” mindset.

“We have no current plans for any changes in the Board as the scheme is not moving forward…I would like to emphasize that the Board supports the management team.

“Certainly there is no lack of faith.”

Nikko Asset Management’s head of equities, Stuart Williams, was openly opposed to and criticized the proposal, but didn’t want to be scalped.

“It is not in our minds to want or anticipate resigning from the board. We have a bit of a disagreement on valuations and timeframes, but I think it is important to understand the strategy and what you are as an individual and as you are. There is no disagreement about trust in the board or you as management.”

Shaw said the hedge fund that bought Pushpay when the deal was first announced will likely sell it now that the deal fell through.

The board and bidders should decide by Tuesday whether to hold another meeting.