Vocus gets Federal Court approval to acquire Amcom

The Federal Court of Australia has approved the scheme of arrangement, which will see Vocus Communications acquire Amcom.

Under the scheme, Amcom shareholders who are on the Amcom register at 7.00 pm Perth time on 1 July 2015 will be entitled to receive 0.4614 new Vocus shares for every Amcom share held that date..

Amcom said as part of this approval, it will lodge a copy of the court orders with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission on Wednesday, at which time the scheme will become legally effective. If this occurs, Amcom said it will apply for its shares to be suspended from trading at the close of trading of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on the same day.

Amcom said the new Vocus shares are expected to commence trading on the ASX on 9 July 2015 under the ASX code VOCN.

The court approval comes after more than 77 percent of Amcom's shareholders voted in favour of the AU$1.2 billion takeover by Vocus. In an effort to get the vote passed, Vocus last month sold its 10 percent stake in Amcom.

Vocus first made its move for Amcom in December 2014, but had been fending off TPG's attempts to block the deal.

In November last year, TPG took a "strategic investment" in Amcom, claiming a 6 percent stake in the telco amid talks between Amcom and Vocus over combining the two businesses.

By April this year, TPG had increased its stake to 18.6 percent, announcing the Vocus merger as the catalyst behind an increased investment. As a result, Vocus called on the ACCC to investigate TPG's intervention.