Dye & Durham has dropped its year-long pursuit of Link Group after the share registry and superannuation administrator spurned the latest, slimmed-down buyout proposal for part of its business.

Link chief executive Vivek Bhatia said on Thursday the Canadian group had been given nine weeks of due diligence, but it had become increasingly clear the two sides were too far apart on value, and it was time for Link to have some “clean air” to run its business without the endless distractions of buyout proposals.