Dye & Durham set to snap up Link for $3.5b

Dye & Durham, a Canadian provider of software for legal professionals, has agreed to buy Australian data services firm Link Administration Holdings for about $3.5 billion.

The cash offer represents $5.50 per share of Link, a premium of about 15 per cent over Tuesday’s closing price, the Toronto-based company said. As part of the deal, Dye & Durham will also indirectly acquire Link Group’s 43 per cent ownership in the recently spun-out conveyancing business PEXA Group.

Just last month, the biggest back-office service provider to Australia’s booming pension industry had received a renewed $2.8b offer from US buyout firm Carlyle Group. The private equity firm was granted due diligence to revise its indicative takeover proposal.

The late Tuesday announcement by Dye & Durham ends a year-long race to acquire Link. Before last month’s offer, Carlyle had made an approach in October 2020 in league with Australian private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners. That prompted Link to embark on a strategic review of its business.

Dye & Durham was attracted by “the overlaps between customers in their corporate markets business and in our core legal business”, chief executive Matthew Proud said. “It’s a good, sticky business that’s well entrenched and generates significant revenue cash flow we can redeploy.”

Dye & Durham said it plans to net about $C125m of cost savings from the merger.

Meanwhile, Link’s other segments including its funds solutions and banking and credit management businesses are “non-core” to Dye & Durham, and will be divested, according to the statement.

Bloomberg