Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
FitzWalter Capital Ltd on Friday announced a fresh, increased takeover proposal for Auction Technology Group PLC.
Auction Technology shares climbed 9% to 351.50 pence late on Friday morning in London. The stock has lost 39% over the last 12 months.
Earlier this month, the London-based auction market operator said its board had unanimously rejected eleven unsolicited takeover proposals from FitzWalter, a private investment company. Auction Technology said the most recent proposal offered 360p per share.
On Friday, FitzWalter said it was considering making a new 400p per share offer for AGT, valuing the company at £491 million. FitzWalter said this was a premium of around 48% to ATG’s share price of 270p on January 2.
‘We value and respect the opinions of other shareholders,’ FitzWalter Partner Andrew Gray commented. ‘Our proposal would give shareholders certainty to realise a cash offer at an attractive premium, compared to trusting a board that has consistently failed to deliver shareholder value.
‘We urge all shareholders to compel the board to engage with FitzWalter in order to deliver a transaction.’
FitzWalter also criticised AGT’s ‘fundamental performance’ and ‘track record’, saying that core marketplace revenue growth, which made up 67% of revenue for the year ended September 30, has fallen below 1%.
It added that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation decreased on-year by 4%, ‘representing the first decrease since ATG’s IPO in 2021, as a result of cost growth in excess of revenues’.
Fitzwalter said ATG shareholders should encourage the board to work ‘towards a deliverable transaction’, the alternative being to ‘risk further value destruction by the existing board’.
Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.