The battle for control of listed brokerage Selfwealth (ASX: SWF) has expanded into three-way affair after the owner of the Syfe wealth management platform indicated it was willing to pay $65 million for a full takeover.

The indicative offer, pitched at 28c per share, is up from the already upsized 25c-per-share offer from Bell Financial Group (ASX: BFG) which has been recommended by the Selfwealth board.

The Singapore-based Svava Pte Ltd, which operates the Syfe platform in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, also has made the fight that much harder for Bell by scooping up 43.4 million Selfwealth shares, giving it a potential blocking stake of 18.8 per cent.

Bell, which launched its first salvo for Selfwealth in November valuing the company at $51 million, was trumped by a rival $58 million bid from AxiCorp Financial Services, a Sydney-based global online brokerage group which was prepared to pay 23c per share.

Despite Svava lobbing an indicative bid of 28c per share, the Selfwealth board is sticking to its guns on Bell Financial’s latest offer of 25c per share – for now at least.

(this is slightly dated news)

edit: sounds like SelfWealth is currently preferring this offer, see email in comments