News: ALU Australian software maker Altium plays up strategy, goals amid takeover interest

June 18 (Reuters) - Software maker Altium (ALU) on Friday underscored its strategy and key objectives, days after rejecting U.S. peer Autodesk's ADSK.O buyout offer, with analysts expecting rival bids to materialise.

Earlier this month, Altium rejected a $3.9-billion takeover bid from the U.S. firm saying its "current price" was too low, but added it would engage with interested parties and pursue a "review of all potential strategic alternatives."

The comments stoked expectations that Altium was open to a higher bid price from Autodesk, and Jefferies analysts said there could be other potential bidders such as France's Dassault Systemes DAST.PA and NASDAQ-listed PCT Inc PTC.O .

Altium's shares leapt to near six-month highs following Autodesk's bid. On Friday, shares were up nearly 3%, on track for their best session in a week.

"The building blocks of our strategy are in place... The Altium Board and leadership team is highly focused," Chief Executive Officer Aram Mirkazemi said in an investor presentation.

Altium also said it expects revenue for fiscal 2021 to be at the low end of the guidance range of $190 million to $195 million, and margin to be at the low end of the 37% to 39% range on an underlying basis.

The company attributed this to a slow first half due to the impact of COVID-19 and the company's pivot to the cloud, which would offset double-digit growth in the second half.

Altium, however, stressed that its renewal business was strong, while its China market was also delivering a solid performance. It also reaffirmed its key objective of achieving $500 million revenue and 100,000 subscribers by 2025.

Altium's develops electronic design automation software products for Microsoft's Windows operating system software, and its products are widely used in the telecommunications, automotive, defense and consumer electronics industries.