News: VRT UPDATE 1-Australia's Virtus accepts $514 mln sweetened CapVest bid, topping BGH offer

(Recasts and updates throughout with more detail)

March 14 (Reuters) - Australia's Virtus Health Ltd (VRT) said on Monday it had accepted a sweetened A$704.8 million ($514 million) takeover offer from CapVest Partners LLP, which topped an improved offer from rival bidder BGH Capital.

However, the months-long bidding war for the in vitro fertilization service provider was not necessarily over as the deal with London-based CapVest allows the Virtus board to consider a superior proposal from Melbourne-based BGH or another party.

CapVest's revised cash offer of A$8.25 per share is a 7% premium to Virtus's Thursday close and a 58% premium to its close on Dec. 13, before the bidding war broke out.

The deal, unanimously recommended by the company's board, knocks out a A$8.10 per share offer from Melbourne-based BGH Capital made after the market close on March 10. That offer was conditional on Virtus not signing an implementation deed with London-based CapVest.

The latest CapVest deal includes a potential simultaneous off-market takeover offer, if it does not reach the required minimum threshold of 50% shareholder acceptance.

Virtus' share price has jumped around 64% since the end of 2019.

($1 = 1.3723 Australian dollars)