SYDNEY, July 2 -- Perpetual's board looked at a 20 percent premium and said no. Shareholders responded by pushing the stock up almost 17 percent anyway, a reaction that tells its own story about how little confidence the market had that a bid was coming at all, let alone one this large.

The Sydney-based trustee and asset manager entered a trading halt on Wednesday after shares had already rallied on takeover speculation, then confirmed it had received a non-binding, conditional proposal from Windflower Pte Ltd, a vehicle indirectly controlled by Swedish private equity giant EQT AB. The offer valued Perpetual at A$21.64 a share, or roughly A$2.5 billion, a premium of close to 20 percent to where the stock had been trading. The board rejec...