Canada's Telus Withdraws Its $830M Bid For Australia's Appen: Reuters

Telus International TIXT TIXT made and then unexpectedly withdrew a A$1.2 billion ($830 million) acquisition offer for Australian rival Appen Ltd APPEF, Reuters reported citing Appen.

"Telus informed us that they were revoking their Indicative Proposal. No reasons were given," the Australian software seller stated.

On Thursday, trading in Appen's shares was halted after they surged more than 29 percent to A$8.27, well below the indicative offer price of A$9.50 per share,

"Appen engaged with Telus in good faith...to better understand the terms of the proposal and to agree on an acceptable confidentiality and standstill agreement," the Australian company said in its latest statement.

Appen had previously stated that it would engage with Telus to seek a higher offer.

"While we see significant synergy potential... we see Appen as being in a weaker negotiation position to extract a higher bid from Telus International," Citi analysts wrote in a report.

Price Action: TIXT shares closed lower by 0.13% at C$30.58 on TSX and lower by 0.33% at $23.86 on NYSE; APPEF closed higher by 2.74% at $5.05 on Wednesday.

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