Amcom delays scheme meeting

Perth-based Amcom Telecommunications has pushed back its scheme meeting to vote on the Vocus Communications takeover deal by two weeks, after Sydney competitor and Amcom’s major shareholder, TPG Telecom, yesterday said it would vote against the proposal.

Click here to see yesterday’s coverage of the Amcom –Vocus deal.

In a statement this afternoon, the Anthony Grist-led Amcom said it was in the best interests of its shareholders to have extra time to consider TPG’s announcement.

TPG made its intentions clear a day after increasing its stake in Amcom by 11.6 per cent, which boosted its voting stake on the deal to 18.6 per cent.

“Despite repeated attempts by Amcom to contact TPG, TPG has shown no willingness to engage with Amcom in order to discuss its concerns in relation to the scheme,” Amcom said.

“As a result of TPG’s statement that it intends to vote against the scheme and that it has no intention to make a counterproposal, the Amcom board is concerned the timing of TPG’s actions less than a week before the scheme meeting date are motivated by self-interest.”

Amcom noted that TPG’s actions yesterday had wiped $100 million or 15 per cent off the company’s market capitalisation.

The meeting has been rescheduled to May 18.

Amcom said its directors remained fully committed to implementing the scheme and continue to recommend shareholders vote in favour of the proposal as soon as possible.

The deal needs to be approved by 75 per cent of Amcom’s shares and 50 per cent of voting shareholders.

Amcom shares closed 0.8 per cent higher to $2.32 per share.