Bidder exits race to acquire Insignia

Insignia has announced that Bain Capital, one of the two private equity bidders to take control of the firm, will not proceed with an offer.

Due diligence comes to an end on Thursday, having been extended by a month from the original deadline.

Both CC Capital and Bain Capital had initially made bids of $5 per share to acquire the company.

However, the volatile market environment has led to Bain exiting the process.

In a statement to the ASX, Insignia said: “Bain has informed Insignia Financial that it will be unable to proceed at this time with making a binding offer for the company, due to the macro uncertainty caused by the volatility in global capital markets.

“Insignia Financial remains in discussions with CC Capital, which has advised that it continues to actively work towards making a binding bid for the company over the coming weeks.

“There is no certainty that the ongoing discussions will result in any transaction being put to Insignia Financial shareholders for their consideration.”

During the due diligence process, the firm was also hit by a cyber attack that affected a small number of superannuation members on its Expand platform.

It is understood this was a coordinated cyber attack which affected Insignia, as well as superannuation funds AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, Hostplus and Rest. Insignia confirmed the incident affected around 100 Expand accounts and said there had been no financial impact to its members. It described the incident as conducted by a "malicious third-party” which involved “credential stuffing” where an unusual number of login attempts targeted the platform.

The bidding war for control of Insignia has been ongoing since December, when Bain made its first offer to acquire the company for $4 per share; however, the board decided this figure was not sufficient.

Since then, both Bain and CC Capital have provided bids of $4.30, $4.60, and the latest offers of $5 per share.