Matrix snares offshore suitor

WA’s Matrix Composites and Engineering Limited, a manufacturer of polymers used in the oil and gas, mining and defence industries, has fielded a big-premium merger proposal from an offshore competitor as its shares drop 35.3 per cent in a year.Street Talk can reveal Matrix, listed on the ASX since 2009 and currently held in the portfolios of Samuel Terry Asset Management and Perpetual, has received a merger approach from UK-headquartered competitor AIS (nee Advanced Insulation Systems), which is about five times Matrix’s size with about $50 million annual earnings.Matrix makes syntactic foam at its facility in the Perth outer suburb of Henderson. Sources said AIS had mandated boutique corporate adviser Henslow for advice, and was proposing a deal at a nearly 100 per cent premium to Matrix’s market value. It is expected to value the ASX-listed company at close to $100 million, although the exact deal structure is not known.Matrix, founded in the 1990s, is understood to have brought in Azure Capital for advice on the unsolicited approach. It did not respond to Street Talk’s requests for comment on Sunday.It is run by Aaron Begley, the son of founder Maxwell Begley, who retains a 6.2 per cent stake. Fred Woollard’s activist fund, Samuel Terry Asset Management, owns about 11.96 per cent of Matrix, while Perpetual has about 6.2 per cent.