Just weeks after UK banking and securities software vendor Trace Group accepted a 135 pence a share take over offer from management, IT services firm Microgen says it is in talks about a counter offer for the vendor "of not less than 150 pence per share in cash".
In a statement Microgen says it is in preliminary discussions with Trace's
independent directors and is considering a possible competing offer to last month's bid for the Trace business from management buyout vehicle Tulip Holdings.
Trace said on 20th April that it had agreed terms of a takeover bid from Tulip valuing the firm at around £20 million. The offer represented a 50.8% premium over Trace's closing price of 89.5 pence per share on 19 April.
At the time Tulip said it had received irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer from shareholders holding 63.6% of Trace's shares.
However following that announcement Trace says Microgen indicated an interest in conducting a due diligence exercise on its business with a view to considering a possible offer.
Trace is now urging its shareholders to wait for Microgen to confirm a counter-bid to the Tulip offer before taking any action.
Trace shares were up 0.510 pence to 145.00 pence in mid-morning trading.
In 2005 Microgen muscled in on TietoEnator's bid for financial software house AttentiV with a bigger bid for the business. The Nordic vendor was forced to raise its offer for AttentiV in order to see off Microgen's counter bid.