US real estate giant mounts takeover bid for Nine’s Domain

American real estate giant Costar has bought up 16.9% of Domain and is mounting a takeover bid for the Australian listings company.

Costar scooped up the Domain stock on Thursday before the close of markets, paying $4.20 a share — 34.6% more than market value — in order to secure close to a fifth of the company.

Domain reported to the market this morning it has received an unsolicited, non-binding indicative proposal from Costar to acquire 100% of the company for $4.20 a share — or $2.7 billion — well in excess of Domain’s current market cap of $1.97 billion.