Sept 30 (Reuters) - British real estate portal Rightmove ( RTMVF )

rejected a sweetened $8.29 billion takeover bid from

Rupert Murdoch's Australian property listing firm REA Group ( RPGRF )

on Monday, saying the fourth bid still undervalued the

company.

Rightmove ( RTMVF ) said its board, after taking into consideration

the views of shareholders and considering representations from

REA's chair and management team, had concluded that the proposal

put forward on Friday remained "unattractive".

Declining a request from REA to grant due diligence access,

the British company also said that shareholder interests would

be better served through the execution of its standalone

strategic plan.

The latest proposal from REA Group ( RPGRF ), which is 62% owned by

Murdoch's News Corp ( NWSA ), consisted of 346 pence in cash,

0.0417 new REA shares and a special dividend of 6 pence in cash.

That gave Rightmove ( RTMVF ) an implied value of 781 pence per share,

about a 3% increase over the previous bid.

Shares in the FTSE 100 company were down about 4% at

642 pence in early trade.

REA has until 1600 GMT on Monday to make a formal offer for

Rightmove ( RTMVF ) or walk away. It had requested to the UK's takeover

regulator for an extension of the deadline.

Rightmove ( RTMVF ) said that during the discussions, REA had

requested to extend the deadline to allow it to consider a

potential fifth proposal.

Rightmove ( RTMVF ) said its Chair Andrew Fisher met with his REA

counterpart Hamish McLennan and executive teams of both sides

also held talks.

REA had expressed frustration at Rightmove's ( RTMVF ) repeated

refusal to hold talks.

Rightmove ( RTMVF ), the runaway house search market leader in the UK,

has been battling fears of increased competition over the past

year or so from rival OnTheMarket, which was bought by American

property firm CoStar in 2023.

The UK company looks primed for a steady recovery from a

property market downturn as the potential for more rate cuts

boosts sentiment in the UK housing sector.