12th Jan 2017 17:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dee Valley Group PLC on Thursday said its shareholders voted in favour of its takeover by Severn Trent PLC, but said that if the transfers it highlighted on Wednesday had been included, the proposal would not have passed.
Dee Valley on Wednesday said it had come to its attention that a series of around 445 recent transfers of small holdings in voting ordinary shares have taken place. This could "distort" the outcome of the shareholder vote at the court meeting, it said.
Dee Valley said its board considers it appropriate for the court to determine if the holders of the voting shares transferred should count for the purposes of voting on the scheme at the court meeting.
In order to provide time for the court to undertake this work, Dee Valley said the court hearing on the takeover will be pushed back from January 18.
Dee Valley, which owns Wrexham Water & Cheshire Waterworks, has been the object of a takeover fight between Severn Trent and investment company Ancala Fornia Ltd.
Dee Valley has recommended an GBP84.0 million takeover offer from Severn Trent, and a court hearing to sanction the takeover was due to take place on Thursday.
On Thursday, Dee Valley said a poll vote which did not include the transfer shares cited on Wednesday saw the takeover by Severn Trent passed by 92% to 8% of its shareholders. At its general meeting of shareholders, 87% voted in favour of the scheme.
But, Severn Trent said that if the transferred shares had been accepted in the vote, the proposal would have been rejected by 56% of shareholders.
The takeover still remains subject to approval by the court at the sanction hearing, which has now been pushed back to January 25 from January 18 "to permit interested parties appropriate time to prepare representations to be presented at the scheme court hearing".
Dee Valley shares closed down 0.1% to 1,810.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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Related Shares:
Severn Trent