$3bn deal hits another roadblock as Canadian giant reviews Link offer

Link reaffirmed its guidance on Friday morning after heavy trading in its stock on Thursday that sent its shares down 10 per cent to $3.35. Its shares started the session on Friday flat at $3.36. The Dye & Durham offer is the fourth takeover bid Link has received in recent years after three other suitors walked away from separate transactions with the administration services group.

It said its revenue was still expected to increase by a low single digit percentage and operating earnings before interest and tax is expected to be at least 5 per cent higher relative to its full-year 2021 result.

Interventions by the ACCC in large deals like this can sometimes result the watchdog asking for an asset to be excluded from the deal, other times the ACCC’s concerns are allayed during its review and it recommends no further action.

The ACCC’s intervention appeared to surprise the market.

Sources familiar with the deal but not authorised to speak on the record said PEXA was already regulated and preferencing any single group using its service over another would be against that regulation and would also damage its business.

Philip Joyce, the chief executive of the smaller electronic conveyancing group Sympli, welcomed the ACCC intervention in the deal saying there needed to be strong competition in the industry.

“Electronic lodgment network operators should not offer conveyancing products or services and Sympli has made it very clear we have no interest in doing so. We expect the same from PEXA,” Joyce said.

“The outcome of the ACCC review is timely recognition that the monopoly structure will no longer stand.”

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