EQT raised its proposal for Australian asset manager Perpetual to A$22.50 a share, valuing the company at A$2.55 billion, but Perpetual merely acknowledged the approach and made no recommendation to shareholders. [1]

The new price, nearly 19 percent above Perpetual's prior close, marks EQT's third approach this month after offers of A$21.64 and A$22.07 a share, recording bidder persistence without removing the proposal's conditions. [1]

The largest condition belongs to another unfinished transaction: EQT's approach depends on Perpetual completing its planned A$500 million sale of its wealth-management business to Bain Capital, making one pending deal a gate for the other, and no commissioned source says that dependency has cleared. [1]

The cutoff-safe record contains no Perpetual board endorsement, definitive agreement, completed due diligence, financing close, regulatory approval, shareholder vote, or acquisition close, while facts added after the source's 11:43 p.m. UTC first publication belong to the next edition rather than this one.

Takeover language can make a rising price sound like a progressing transaction, but here EQT moved the number while the board remained silent and the Bain sale remained a gate, leaving a richer and more persistent proposal rather than a completed deal, with shareholders still awaiting Perpetual's recommendation.

-- PRIYA SHARMA, Delhi