Rejecting a takeover offer: Here are 6 ASX stocks that did and how it ended for them

Rejecting a takeover offer is a bold step for an ASX company to take. It is turning down sweet quick cash for its shareholders and management. The argument most commonly made to reject them is that any offers are opportunistic and do not appropriately value the company – indeed, those very words are commonly used.

The board will tell shareholders there is more value to be made, either explicitly or by simply saying it would be open to offers that appropriately value the company (hint: a bigger offer). Sometimes the board is right and more value is created later on. But other times they will show they should’ve just taken the money.

Here are 6 instances an ASX company rejected a takeover offer and how it worked out for them.

We would first point out that we are only including companies that received actual bids, not situations like Infomedia where potential suitors were granted due diligence, but none were identified, let alone made a firm offer. Also, we will strictly talk about market capitalisation when discussing valuations rather than the share price because the number of shares on issue changes over time (even in months).

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6 ASX companies that rejected a takeover offer, and how it turned out for them

1. AGL (ASX:AGL)

Most of the time, takeover suitors who were rejected will just walk away and look for another deal. But Double Bay Jesus Mike Cannon-Brookes wasn’t willing to walk away with nothing. He made an $8bn bid that was rejected, but went on to put enough pressure on shareholders to force AGL to withdraw plans to put the demerger to a shareholder vote and the board consequently resigned en-masse.

3 and a half years, AGL is capitalised at $6bn. It did trade above $8bn briefly in 2024, but the past 12 months have not been good for the company due to increased depreciation and amortisation costs, margin compression and lower wholesale electricity prices. Moreover, there is still about about the company’s decarbonisation plans.

2. Bapcor (ASX:BAP)

Bapcor sells and distributes vehicle parts, accessories, automotive equipment and services and solutions in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. It is best known for its Autobarn stores, of which there are 130 in Australia, along with other brands, including ABS.

Bain Capital, the same firm that turned around Virgin Australia, made a $1.83bn bid in mid-2024. The board rejected it on the basis it undervalued the company and was opportunistic based on temporary difficulties that would be overcome. Fast forward to Q4 of 2025, and the company is capitalised at $1.1bn. In FY25, its profit fell by a further 15% on a pro forma basis and sales were flat due to a weak retail environment. Great call in our book.

Source: Futurama/Fox

3. Platinum Investment Management (ASX:PTM)

Here’s a deal rejection that turned out to be right…eventually. After 2 years of accumulating a stake, Phil King’s Regal Funds Management made a >$600m bid for the company in August 2024. The initial bid was rejected but Regal was invited to do further due diligence to come up with a higher offer. This followed a long period of client fund outflows and poor investment performance. 

After a couple of months of due diligence, Regal opted to walk away from the talks. CEO Brendon O’Connor would later tell investors,’ We walked away from Platinum because we couldn’t agree on a price. Our great concern was that funds under management were eroding faster than we could get our head around. We couldn’t build sufficient conviction in the price that we were looking to pay so we walked away’.

A year on, and it seems it worked out best for everyone. It has spent some of that money buying up other assets, and cushioning itself from the blow the failure of Opthea would cause its portfolio. And Platinum has just merged with L1 Capital. This followed another year of falling FUM to $10.8bn (30%). L1 is capped at $1.6bn.

4. Origin Energy (ASX:ORG)

In this case, it was the retail investors that rejected the deal. Well, technically they didn’t because 69% were in favour, but there had to be a 75% affirmative vote for the bid to succeed. The board formally has accepted the US$12bn takeover bid from Canada’s Brookfield and the US-based MidOcean, and the ACCC has approved too. Key to the rejection was AustralianSuper opposing the bid.

2 years on, and the share price is 40% higher than the original bid. So it was the right thing to happen. In FY25, its underlying profit grew from $1.18bn to $1.49bn. Obviously the company faces the usual risks in the energy sector such as volatility in commodity pricing, regulatory risk, transition risk (towards renewables), and managing leverage. But all things considered, the company has done well even if it was its Energy Markets division doing the bulk of the heavy lifting due to weaker LNG prices.

5. Adore Beauty (ASX:ABY)

Adore Beauty was offered $122m from UK online retailer THG following a number of years of underperformance. 2 years on and the company is capitalised at just over $100m, so it hasn’t gone anywhere really. Nonetheless, it has not continued to decline like Bapcor did following its rejection.

Moreover, as we argued last month, Adore Beauty does have a promising outlook at last, even if it is different to what may have been anticipated. Specifically, it is opening brick and mortar stores, and even though it is early days, there have been positive signs in high foot traffic and sales growth.

6. Quoria (ASX:QOR)

18 months ago, in April 2024, K1 Investment made a bid at $0.40 per share. Qoria’s board unanimously rejected it, saying the proposal “significantly undervalue[d]” the company, did not reflect its growth trajectory, and was opportunistically timed.

Since rejecting the bid, Qoria’s share price has risen substantially and the stock has surpassed $1bn in market capitalisation. Why? Because its software allows parents to monitor and restrict children’s internet browsing. With Australia’s world’s first social media ban for under 16s, and other similar regulations worldwide…talk about perfect timing!

The lesson from all this

Clearly, you can never be confident a takeover deal will go ahead until it is signed on the dotted line. So, if a stock spikes due to a takeover offer that hasn’t been accepted, it’s probably best taking your chips off the table.

This is particularly the case if there is ‘due diligence’ to come following a takeover deal being revealed to shareholders. Because in a best case scenario, your money does nothing for a few weeks or months. But in a worst case scenario, the deal could fall through.

When a board rejects a takeover offer, a company’s best chance to create shareholder value is to deliver a solid financial performance. But even then, there’s no guarantee of success.