Australia's Perpetual rejects $1.7B takeover offer

• Perpetual rejected an unsolicited $1.7 billion takeover offer from EQT-controlled Windflower.
• The company's stock rose 16.77% to close at $18.10 following market speculation.
• The board intends to focus on its core operations following recent structural changes.

Australian wealth manager Perpetual (ASX:PPT) rejected an unsolicited $1.7 billion takeover bid from private equity vehicle Windflower.

The $21.64 per share cash offer represented a premium of nearly 20% to the company's previous closing price.

The company rejected the non-binding indicative proposal. The board stated that the conditional proposal failed to represent fair value for its shareholders.

Following the announcement, the Perpetual share price was up at $18.10.

The takeover approach followed an agreement by the company in March to sell its wealth management unit for $500 million.

The company previously reported a half-year underlying profit after tax of $112.7 million in February.