Cape Town - The mandatory offer of 960 cents per share made recently to shareholders in Paarl-based liquor group KWV Holdings has been declared "neither fair nor reasonable".
The pronouncement was made on Tuesday by independent adviser KPMG, which suggested the offer by PSG-controlled Zeder Investments and Rootstock Capital (a company associated with prominent asset manager Thys du Toit) seriously undervalued KWV.
KPMG valued KWV shares at between 1 150c/share and 1 430c/share –significantly higher than the average over-the-counter traded price of 1 034c/share for KWV shares during March.
KPMG also pointed out that KWV held a net asset value (NAV) of 1 850c/share at the end of March this year.
The mandatory offer from Zeder and Rootstock was triggered when the acquisition of a block of shares by the companies pushed their combined holding above 35%.
Neither Zeder or Rootstock were acting with any hostile intent when acquiring the block of shares, but the fact that the companies were seen to be acting as concert parties triggered the mandatory offer.
In fact, KWV seemed to welcome developments – noting earlier that the transaction was a vote of confidence in the company’s future.
On Tuesday KWV reiterated that Zeder and Rootstock had no plans to change the business of company or the composition of the board.
- Fin24.com