After reports surfaced in the financial press that Accel-KKR was in talks with HR, payroll and expense management again, the company issued a “Response to Media Speculation” statement to the ASX mid-morning confirming it had “approaches who expressed interest in acquiring the business from various parties,” including Accel-KKR
“The company is in talks with selected parties as part of maximizing shareholder value,” the board statement said.
“No agreement has been reached with respect to any transaction, and there is no assurance that any proposal received will result in a binding offer or that such offer will be recommended to shareholders.”
Elmo Shares Popped 27.69% to $3.09 at the end of Wednesday — a figure nearly half the $6.10 that Accel-KKR made in an indicative and non-binding offer in June in an indicative and non-binding offer bid before those negotiations stalled.
The Sydney-based company is 20 years old and was listed at $2 a share in 2017, rising to over $8 by early 2020 before being crushed in the Covid pandemic slump and on the slide for the past two years. The company reported a loss of $76.8 million in FY2022 on revenue of $91.4 million with underlying EBITDA earnings of $7.1 million.
While revenue grew nearly a third year-over-year, both pre-tax and net losses doubled in FY21.
The company employs approximately 600 people and has customers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The largest stakeholders include AustralianSuper and Cooper Investors.