The board of 8IP Emerging Companies Limited (ASX: 8EC) has advised its shareholders to take “no action whatsoever” regarding their shares in response to a takeover bid by Aurora Funds Management Limited.

Aurora announced Friday morning it would make an all scrip bid for 100 per cent of the fully paid ordinary shares in the tech investor at 75c per share. That represents an 11.9 per cent premium to 8EC’s most recent closing price of 67c.

  • Scroll down for more ASX tech news >>>

8EC followed up by pointing out to its shareholders that:

  • the offer price “represents a very substantial discount to 8EC’s last reported post-tax NTA of $0.89 per share”
  • Aurora is unlisted and it is a significantly smaller entity than 8EC, with total assets of only $4.67m
  • and 88 per cent of its investment portfolio is represented by Aurora’s 16.01 per cent shareholding in 8EC.

8EC also reminded shareholders that in March, Aurora finally gave up on a year-long battle to overturn 8IP’s board and install three Aurora directors.

Two-thirds of 8IP shareholders voted against the motion, with 81 per cent of proxy votes received in advance against it.

Aurora took its challenge to the Supreme Court of NSW but instead wound up with an order to pay the costs of that attempt on both an ordinary and indemnity basis.

Those costs are yet to be determined.

In other ASX tech news today:

iCar Asia’s (ASX: ICQ) quarterly is in and they are still doing very well out of selling cars online, in Asia. Cash receipts in Q1 2019 were up 25 per cent on Q4 2018 to $3.8m, unaudited revenue grew 30 per cent year on year to $2.6m, and net operating cash flows improved 20 per cent quarter on quarter with a decrease of $500,000.

Fintech Chain (ASX: FTC) won a contract in China. Its patented T-Linx payment service will be the sole solution and service provider for the Shaanxi Xinhe Integrated Payment System. “Shaanxi Xinhe” is the collective term for rural cooperative financial institutions covering Rural Credit Cooperative Union, Rural Cooperative Banks and Rural Commercial Banks within the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Province in China.

FTC will receive a 0.02 per cent transaction fee as revenues from all the related ongoing projects of Rural Credit Cooperative Unions that use the T-Linx payment system “until further review”.

Morgans is excited about online lottery operator Jumbo Interactive (ASX: JIN). It’s set a new target price of $19.18 up from $11.18 for the operator of www.ozlotteries.com and popular lottery apps, mainly thanks to a “strong jackpot run” in the 2019 first half that included Oz Lotto’s $70m draw and Powerball’s $100m draw.

Morgans is particularly impressed with the way JIN has been able to leverage its growing customer base to drive revenue growth. JIN’s active customer accounts have grown from just under 400,000 in H1 2018 to nudging 600,000 in H1 2019.

Featured Companies

You might be interested in