Shares in Misys leapt 7% today after a third bidder threw its hat into the ring in the £1.2 billion battle to buy the banking software firm.
Private-equity house CVC Capital Partners and ValueAct Capital, Misys’s largest shareholder, are looking at a joint bid for the company. The latest twist comes just weeks after Misys started to talk to Swiss rival Temenos about a merger. An announcement that the British firm’s chief executive Mike Lawrie was quitting for another job seemed to confirm that the deal would go ahead.
However, Misys then received a second approach, said to be worth £1.2 billion, from US buyout group Vista Equity Partners. Jeffrey Ubben, founder and chief executive of ValueAct, which originally backed the Temenos tie-up, today said: “The proposed Misys and Temenos all-share merger has strategic logic but we have decided to evaluate whether we can make an alternative proposal that provides the certainty of cash upon completion.”
Last year Misys walked away from bid talks with Fidelity National Information Services, a US financial data company, over a deal thought to be worth £1.4 billion.
The City is still gunning for more, however. George O’Connor, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said: “In the immortal words of Harry Hill, ‘but which is better? — fight’. While we like Vista’s potential offer, we also like the CVC/ValueAct combo, The shares [have risen] on the potential for a scrap.” They today surged 21.4p to 337.5p.
