AUB Group today confirmed it has received an offer for 100% of shares in the listed broking and underwriting giant.

The group entered a trading halt yesterday afternoon following a spike in its share price after an article was published in the Australian Financial Review.

Today it announced to the market that on September 26 it received “a non-binding, indicative proposal from Arbutus Pte Limited (an entity affiliated with EQT AB) … to acquire 100% of the shares in AUB by way of a scheme of arrangement for a price of $45 cash per AUB share”.

This followed an offer of $43 per share earlier that month.

With 116,587,434 shares on issue, $45 per share works out to a $5.25 billion valuation.

“The recent trading in AUB’s securities may be explained by a headline and article which AUB understands appeared in Street Talk in the Australian Financial Review on October 27 2025 at 2.56pm (Sydney time) entitled ‘Underperforming AUB Group in crosshairs of private equity suitor’,” AUB told the Australian Securities Exchange this morning.

AUB says the proposal is subject to conditions “including exclusivity, completion of due diligence, a unanimous board recommendation, final internal approvals, and execution of a scheme implementation deed.

“After careful consideration, the AUB board determined that it would be in the best interests of AUB shareholders to enter into a confidentiality and exclusivity agreement with EQT to further progress the proposal, as exclusivity was a key condition of the proposal.

“The AUB board has provided EQT with access to confirmatory due diligence for a six-week period which commenced on October 8 2025.

“The board notes that there is no guarantee that the proposal will result in a transaction.”

The AFR article, which was followed up by The Australian newspaper, said AUB had attracted the attention of Swedish private equity firm EQT Group, citing unnamed sources. 

Macquarie Capital and Allens were advising AUB Group, and Goldman Sachs and Ashurst were advising EQT Group, the AFR said.  

Shares in AUB rose 12% to $35.98 on Monday before activity was paused.