SMS M&T shareholders vote yes to ASG bid

The acquisition of SMS Management and Technology by fellow IT services provider ASG Group is expected to become official before the end of the month after SMS shareholders voted yes to the proposal.

ASG Group became frontrunner in the bidding war for SMS M&T in June when rival DWS decided to take itself out of the race.

DWS had almost signed a deal with SMS when ASG entered the contest in May with a $1.80 per share cash offer.

The SMS board subsequently recommended the ASG bid over DWS' $1 in cash and 0.39 shares for each SMS share, for a total of $1.66 per share, offer.

Both bids valued SMS at around $124 million.

SMS shareholders late last week overwhelmingly signalled their support for an ASG-SMS merger, with 98 percent of votes in favour of the proposal.

The SMS board declared a fully franked special dividend of 10.2 cents per share following the vote.

The scheme of arrangement between the pair is scheduled to come into force on September 26.