ZPG abandons the chase for GoCompare

Zoopla and uSwitch owner ZPG confirmed on Thursday that it does not plan to make another offer for GoCompare.

Last week, GoCompare "unanimously and unequivocally" rejected an unsolicited £460m takeover bid from ZPG. Chairman Peter Wood said at the time that the bid - made on 8 November - was "highly opportunistic and fundamentally undervalues the company and its prospects".

The 110p a share bid represented a premium of 16% to the closing price of 95p the day before the proposal was made and a 5% premium to the three-month volume weighted average share price as at 7 November.

GoCompare also said at the time that ZPG had made an initial unsolicited approach back in May, also valuing the price comparison website at 110p per share and also rejected on the basis that it undervalued the company.

ZPG, which also owns the Primelocation property website, said on Thursday that it reserves the right to announce an offer or possible offer for GoCompare within six months of the date of this announcement, if a third party announces a firm intention to make an offer.

The FTSE 250-listed company has been flashing the cash of late, with September's £140m agreement to acquire financial services comparison website Money.co.uk. It will pay £80m on a cash-free, debt-free basis, plus a performance-based earn-out of up to £60m.

At 1605 GMT on Thursday, ZPG shares were down 0.9% to 348.10p while GoCompare was off 7.8% to 100.50p.