Australian colocation provider NextDC has increased its offer to take over Asia Pacific Data Centre Group (APDC), raising its per-share bid from AU$1.85 to AU$1.87.

Earlier in the month NextDC purchased a 14.1 percent stake in the company to hold off a bid by 360 Capital Group to replace APDC’s management team, and an ongoing attempt to acquire the business. Since then NextDC, made its initial acquisition bid, and increased its stake to 19.99 percent.

Spin off remorse

APDC was previously a part of NextDC, but was spun off four years ago. Its sole assets are three data centers - in Sydney (S1), Melbourne (M1) and Perth (P1) - all three of which are fully occupied by NextDC.

This arrangement appears to have suited both companies, but was threatened when 360 Capital sought to overthrow APDC’s leadership team. 360 fund manager Tony Pitts said he wanted to take a “more proactive approach” to investments, claiming APDC’s current balance sheet was “very lazy.”

360 Capital then put in a acquisition offer of AU$1.80 per share. It plans to launch its due diligence process today, something that could take three weeks to complete, after which it may make another offer.

“We note that the NextDC price is not expressed to be final and therefore NextDC is capable of increasing the offer price,” 360 Capital said in a disclosure to the Australian Securities Exchange.

NextDC made its initial acquisition offer after concerns around having 360 Capital as a potential landlord, investor relations manager at NextDC, Rahul Badethalav, told ZDNet.

The company also said that 360 Capital’s acquisition proposal was “highly conditional” and reflected “poor corporate governance,” while its was unconditional to “provide certainty” to APDC shareholders.

Its current bid would be approximately AU$215 million, within its reserves of more than AU$460 million as of June 30, 2017 - including both cash reserves and a senior corporate debt facility.