1st Dec 2016 11:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd on Thursday urged shareholders in palm oil and rubber plantation company MP Evans Group PLC to accept its increased cash offer for the business, saying the company's own supposed valuation is "unsubstantiated".
On November 16, the board of MP Evans confirmed it had rejected an increased offer from KL-Kepong at 740.00 pence per share, valuing the company around GBP415.4 million. MP Evans claimed that based on independent valuations it is worth 1,082p per share.
Shares in MP Evans were down 2.2% at 665p on Thursday.
KL-Kepong said Thursday that the MP Evans valuation is "illusory", noting that its own offer is a premium of 34% to the company's highest ever closing price of 553.8p per share before the announcement of the takeover bid.
KL-Kepong also suggested that MP Evans had skewed its valuation of its own holdings by comparing its Indonesian plantations to sales of higher value Malaysian and Papua New Guinean plantations.
"The board of KLK believes that achieving any value per MP Evans share in excess of the increased offer consideration is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and would be unprecedented based on historic trading volumes in MP Evans shares. By contrast, the increased offer represents an attractive value proposition at a substantial premium with a high degree of certainty," said KL-Kepong.
By Adam Clark; [email protected]
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