(Bloomberg) -- Hargreaves Lansdown Plc, the UK’s largest retail investment platform, said a group of private equity firms that placed a buyout bid have time until Aug. 5 to make a firm offer, according to a statement from the company.
Discussions between the consortium of investors and the Bristol-based firm for a definitive transaction documentation remain ongoing and as a result the previous deadline of July 19 has been extended, Hargreaves Lansdown said in the statement on Friday.
After failed approaches earlier, CVC Capital Partners, Nordic Capital and Platinum Ivy — a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority — made a fresh offer in June that values the platform at £5.4 billion ($7 billion).
The offer price of 1,140 pence a share includes 30 pence for its 2024 final dividend. In June, Hargreaves Lansdown said its board would unanimously support the revised offer at the proposed value. The stock has rallied 50% this year and traded at 1,098 pence early Friday in London.
Hargreaves Lansdown was founded in 1981 by Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown, who together own about a quarter of the company despite reducing their stakes in recent years. In an interview with Bloomberg News in June, they said they would consider backing the PE offer to buy the investment platform.
In a separate statement Friday, the money manager said assets under administration rose to a record £155.3 billion in the three months through June, while seeing inflows of £1.6 billion. It added 24,000 new clients in the period.
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