Fiserv’s takeover of British fintech pioneer Monitise is on shaky ground after an extraordinary general meeting was postponed to buy the US software company more time to convince shareholders to accept its £70m offer. Monetise once the poster child of FInTech....The London company has failed to drum up any sales of its FinKit software and could face a fire sale of its assets should the Fiserv bid fail.
The meeting was due to take place on Tuesday but has been put on ice “in light of the feedback” from certain Monitise shareholders. That sets the clock ticking on the takeover with August 24 the final date for the meeting to take place and shareholders needing two weeks notice. Effectively Fiserv has two weeks to reconvene the meeting and to decide whether to stick with existing offer, raise the bid or walk away. Paul Mumford at Cavendish Asset Management, which owns 112m shares in Monitise, had led the charge against the 2.9p offer after deriding it as “too low” given the stock peaked at 80p. No other offers have emerged for the former tech darling but there has been little sign that agitated retail investors are willing to accept the bid.
https://www.ft.com/content/049d6eb1-088e-3b0a-9582-47e3a81f40a5
