By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--HRL Morrison & Co. raised its takeover proposal for Uniti Group Ltd. after partnering with Brookfield Asset Management, moving the Australian telecommunications services provider to end talks with a rival consortium.

Uniti on Tuesday said that the Canadian investment manager had joined the New Zealand-based asset manager to form a 50-50 consortium for a proposal worth A$5.00 per share. HRL Morrison acted alone when it proposed A$4.50 per share earlier this month.

Uniti agreed to a condition in the proposal not to engage with a rival consortium comprising Macquarie Group Ltd.'s asset manager and Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board. That consortium made a A$5.00-per-share proposal last week, also valuing Uniti's equity at 3.40 billion Australian dollars (US$2.55 billion).

The Australian company agreed to the condition after HRL Morrison said it had made significant progress in due diligence and talks with lenders. It had not identified anything that would prevent it from moving forward, Uniti said.

The Brookfield-Morrison consortium was concerned that Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets holds a 50% stake in Vocus Group Ltd., a competitor of Uniti.

Uniti shares last traded at A$4.72.


Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-28-22 1839ET