Australia’s Reliance Worldwide receives $2.9 billion takeover bid from Brookfield

On Tuesday, Australia's Reliance Worldwide Corporation announced that Brookfield Capital Partners LLC had increased its offer to acquire the plumbing solutions company. The new proposal values the enterprise at A$4.1 billion, or $2.91 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Brookfield would purchase all outstanding ordinary shares of Reliance for A$4.75 each in cash, which equates to an equity valuation of A$3.55 billion.

Brookfield had previously made a series of unsolicited, non-binding, indicative offers in April and May, ranging from A$4.15 to A$4.50 per share, all in cash. The Australian firm also disclosed that it had signed a process deed with Brookfield to proceed with the proposal. This agreement prevents Reliance from soliciting or discussing competing offers and limits the sharing of information with other potential bidders between August 17 and September 15.

If a scheme implementation deed is entered between the two parties, Reliance will have 30 days to seek and negotiate potentially better offers from other bidders. To facilitate the proposal, Reliance has appointed Goldman Sachs and Oaktower Partnership as its financial advisers.