Atturra CEO Stephen Kowal
Atturra has fired back against Brennan IT in the fight to acquire MOQ Digital, this time stepping its bid up to approximately $21.7 million.
The offer comes from increasing its all-cash offer of $0.060 per MOQ share to $0.070 per share, consisting of $0.055 in cash and $0.015 in Atturra shares, equating to roughly $0.02226 Atturra shares per MOQ share.
This, according to an Atturra statement published to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), is a premium of 6.1 per cent of Brennan IT’s offer from 8 August, which came to roughly $20.5 million.
In response, MOQ has agreed to the revised offer, with its directors, which hold 34.1 per cent of MOQ shares, intending to vote in favour of the deal and recommending to shareholders to also vote for it in the absence of a superior proposals.
Atturra put in its first bid to fully acquire publicly listed IT services provider MOQ Limited for $15 million on 30 June in a move that could create "one of Australia’s largest IT services businesses".
The IT consultancy formerly known as FTS Group had originally offered to buy 100 per cent of MOQ’s shares for $0.05 cents in cash per MOQ share as part of a Scheme of Arrangement.
Atturra then made a revised offer on 5 August, increasing it by 20 per cent to $0.06, pushing the deal price to $18.6 million.
This was followed by a $20.5 million bid from a third party' on 8 August, which was revealed to be Brennan IT.
The acquisition attempt comes as MOQ informed shareholders of its ongoing operational challenges and trading losses.
In particular, MOQ cited its unprofitable professional services contracts, although it claimed to have made “significant progress” on fixed fee arrangements.
In December 2021, MOQ said it would conduct a review of its professional services business and operations following a $3.5 million write-off and provide for contract cost overruns.
