Australia Lab Company Rebuffs Bain, Advent

MELBOURNE, Australia—Laboratory-testing-services provider ALS Ltd. rejected as "opportunistic" a takeover approach from two private-equity suitors worth about 2.7 billion Australian dollars (US$1.9 billion).

The company—which provides food-testing, metallurgical, environmental and other laboratory analyses for a range of industries—said Thursday it received a nonbinding and conditional A$5.30-a-share cash offer from Boston-based firms Advent International Corp. and Bain Capital LLC.

ALS said its board reviewed the approach and unanimously rejected the offer, almost a 31% premium to ALS's last closing price and a 22% premium to the one-month average, as significantly undervaluing the company.

ALS's net loss widened in the year ended March to A$240.7 million, from A$174.5 million the year before, hit by more than A$300 million in impairment charges against the value of the company's oil and gas investments as energy prices collapsed. The share price slid 9.8% in the two days after the release of the annual results on Monday. Trading was halted before the market opened Wednesday.

In a statement Thursday, the company said its board believes the approach was made at a time when ALS is pushing ahead with its strategy to focus on growth opportunities for its life-sciences business. The bid also comes at a low point in the cycle for the company's minerals business, as the fall in commodity prices led mining companies to sharply cut spending and exploration.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 02, 2016 01:45 ET (05:45 GMT)

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