SYDNEY, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Australian detention camp operator Broadspectrum Ltd BRS.AX on Tuesday advised shareholders to take no action on a takeover offer from Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial SA FER.MC , suggesting it undervalued the company.
Broadspectrum, the firm running Australia's controversial offshore camps for asylum seekers, said Ferrovial had not had any access to confidential information on which to base its A$692 million ($508 million) offer.
Ferrovial's latest A$1.35 per share offer is well short of the $1 billion it offered a year ago in a proposal that Broadspectrum rejected as too low. Broadspectrum said its suitor had not seen its books since December last year.
Since then, Broadspectrum said it had delivered on a number of milestones, including meeting its upgraded 2015 earnings guidance.
It had also maintained a strong level of work-in-hand of about A$10 billion and secured preferred positions on a number of additional key contracts worth more than A$2 billion.
"In assessing the offer, the board of Broadspectrum notes that the company's shares were trading above A$1.60 as recently as June 2015," the company said.
The deal would put the Spanish conglomerate in line for a five-year immigration detention contract from the Australian government, widely expected to be worth about A$2.7 billion, which Broadspectrum is due to renew in March. Ferrovial-owned interests run prisoner escort services in the U.K. and several prisons in Spain.
Fund manager Allan Gray, Broadspectrum's biggest shareholder with 19 percent, on Monday said the offer was "opportunistic".