National Veterinary Care (ASX:NVL) shares shot up over 50 per cent this morning on news of a takeover bid that the board wasted no time in unanimously endorsing.

Private company VetPartners, which operates 140 clinics across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, made a $3.70 per share takeover bid, valuing National Veterinary Care at $251.5m — a 56.8 per cent premium to its closing share price last Friday.

The transaction will need approval from the courts and the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board in addition to shareholders.

But the company told shareholders they should accept the offer. Chair Susan Forrester said she believed the proposal was consistent with maximising shareholder value.

VetPartners’ CEO John Burns wooed National Veterinary Care shareholders by telling them the companies had shared values.

“National Veterinary Care and VetPartners have a shared passion for creating a supportive network to enable veterinary professionals to focus on what they love – providing care for animals and their families,” he said.

“Our combined management teams are excited about working together to build on the key strengths of each business to create one stronger community that values learning, individual and excellence in patient care and that strengthens the veterinary industry as a whole.”

It comes less than a year after previously listed company Greencross was acquired by US private equity firm TG Capital.

In the last 12 months, NVL shares had gained a fair 24 per cent but with today’s 53 per cent rise shares have almost doubled this year.

 

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In other ASX corporate news today:

If you’re a fan of Power Rangers, you might be interested to know Animoca Brands (ASX:AB1) is buying its developer and publisher – nWay. It will pay $11.4m, which will be settled by a combination of cash and shares.

The Keybridge saga just got a tad more interesting. Keybridge Capital (ASX:KBC) has had a takeover offer on the table from Wilson Asset Management since October. But on Friday the offer was replaced with one at the lower price of 6.5c per share. This morning, substantial shareholder Bentley Capital (ASX:BEL) said it still wanted to exit at the old price of 6.9c but was currently mulling the offer on the table at present.

Netlinkz (ASX:NET) has climbed another 8 per cent this morning after upgrading its 2020 revenue forecast by 50 per cent. It now expects $15.3m in cash flows compared with $10.1m it previously estimated. The company has now gained 352 per cent this year, making it one of 2019’s best performing tech stocks.