One of the largest investors in Nielsen Holdings Plc stepped up its opposition to a proposed $16 billion takeover of the provider of media data services, arguing there is a “credible path” to see the shares trading at more than $80 a share within three years.
WindAcre Partnership, which owns a 27.6% stake in Nielsen, has come out against the acquisition by a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Elliott Investment Management, despite the buyers boosting their bid to $28 apiece.
Houston-based WindAcre has taken steps to block the deal, including by trying to prevent the company from going private through a tender offer, which requires support from a simple majority of shareholders, instead of the U.K. standard that requires 75% support.
Snehal Amin, the managing partner of WindAcre, argued during an investor presentation Tuesday that the takeover price “isn’t even close” to the fair value of Nielsen.
He argued the intrinsic value of the company is about $52 a share today. Nielsen is positioned to provide advertisers with a single platform to say how wide the reach was for a program and how many distinct people the programming hit.
“We believe that Nielsen has an unmatched capability here to solve the hardest problem in media,” Amin said on a conference call. “We believe the advertisers know that. That’s what they want, and at the end of the day, they are the ones that will decide.”
A representative for the buyout group declined to comment.
Nielsen fell 0.6% to $26.61 at 12:25 a.m. in New York trading Tuesday, giving it a market value of about $9.6 billion.
Several catalysts will drive the stock, including its media-rating council re-accreditation, the launch of Nielsen One, and the opportunity to distribute $3 a share in cash to shareholders in 2023, Amin said.
The company could also boost its share price to $80 per share by 2025 by taking on more debt and buying back shares, he added. He said selling at $28 a share would likely transfer $13 billion in value from today’s shareholders to the buyout group.
“We’ve always believed there are billions of dollars on the table here, and that’s why we fought so hard for a better deal for all shareholders than the deal we have before us today,” Amin said.
Amin had previously said he believed the intrinsic value of Nielsen was $40 a share. During the takeover negotiations, WindAcre offered its support if the buyers granted it the equivalent of $40 for each of its 86.5 million shares and options in the form of equity in the closely held provider of media data services, or about $1.1 billion in additional equity, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
WindAcre quickly increased its stake to try to block the deal. U.K. officials at the Investment Security Unit are investigating whether that stake should have also been declared in Britain, where the company is incorporated and has more than 500 employees.
It’s an early test for Britain’s National Security and Investment Act, which came into force in January.
