(Reuters) -British software company Blue Prism on Wednesday defended Vista Equity’s $1.5 billion takeover offer, saying it is better than remaining a standalone firm, days after activist investor Coast Capital opposed the deal.
Blue Prism agreed to a 1,125 pence-per-share offer from Vista last week, but minority shareholder Coast said it would vote against the bid that it believed undervalued the London-listed company.
U.S.-based Coast, which owns about 3 million Blue Prism shares, objected to the deal in a letter last week, saying the sale process was flawed and that it believed there were multiple conflicts of interest.
Blue Prism, in response, said it reached out to 15 strategic parties and 12 financial sponsors during its sale process and that assertions of conflicts of interest were “entirely flawed”.
Coast had earlier said it sent out an operational improvement plan to Blue Prism, but the UK-based company said on Tuesday that it lacked details for its board to assess.
($1 = 0.7352 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Ramakrishnan M.)
