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Shares in Sydney-based fintech Tyro Payments’ (ASX: TYR) have risen sharply for a second day after the company was forced to reveal it is eyeing potential takeover offers from undisclosed parties.
The announcement today follows needling by the ASX about the sudden surge in the Tyro share price yesterday which shot 10.5 per cent higher to $1.072.
Yesterday’s price query from the market operator led Tyro to request a trading halt on its shares while the company prepared “an appropriate announcement”.
The point-of-sale payments company told the ASX yesterday that, as far as it was aware, the matter had remained confidential.
However, this morning Tyro revealed that over the past few months it had received “unsolicited and non-binding interest from separate parties regarding the potential acquisition of the company”.
“While the company remains prepared to engage with approaches that may deliver sufficient value to shareholders, at this stage, the interest received is not at a level that the Tyro board has considered representative of Tyro’s intrinsic value,” says the company.
“Tyro will keep the market updated in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations.”
But that didn’t stop investors from piling into the stock for a second day, pushing Tyro shares to a high of $1.21 this morning following the announcement revealing that predators were circling the group.
Shares in Tyro have traded below $1 for most of the past year, with today’s price spike taking them to their highest level since August last year when they traded as high as $1.10.
The potential takeover interest in Tyro is the first since Australian private equity group Potentia Capital Management abandoned an $875 million offer for the fintech in May 2023.
Potentia had offered $1.60 per share at the time, which also saw Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX: WBC) eyeing a potential buyout.
The latest developments also follow Tyro’s abandoned plans for a $220 million takeover of Smartpay Holdings (ASX: SMP) in May this year.
Tyro’s fortunes have improved in recent years, since putting behind it a class action brought by disgruntled merchants at the end of 2021 after offering a settlement in 2023 ahead of the matter going to court.
After boosting its bottom-line more than fourfold to $25.7 million in FY24, the company doubled its net profit in the first half of FY25 to $10.25 million from $5.1 million a year earlier.
Based on the current share price, Tyro Payments is capitalised at more than $618 million.
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