PRESS: Melrose Expected To Sweeten Offer For GKN Ahead Of Deadline

11th Mar 2018 10:40

LONDON (Alliance News) - Melrose Industries PLC will raise its GBP7.4 billion offer for GKN PLC this week in an effort to clinch the hostile takeover of the FTSE 100 engineer, The Sunday Times reported.

The FTSE 250 industrial turnaround specialist is expected to offer GKN investors a bigger slice of the enlarged company rather than increasing the cash payout, according to the newspaper. Melrose has until Thursday to improve its offer under the UK Takeover Code, it noted.

Under the current offer, GKN shareholders would own 57% of the enlarged company, with Melrose shareholders having the other 43%. GKN investors also would receive 81 pence in cash for each of their shares, worth a total GBP1.4 billion.

Melrose is likely to increase the value of its bid by at least 5%, which could add GBP300 million to GBP400 million to its current offer, The Sunday Times said.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/melrose-to-raise-stakes-in-battle-for-gkn-9d5f030n7

On Friday, GKN announced its most dramatic defense yet against Melrose's bid, saying it had agreed to combine its automotive business Driveline with New York-listed engineering firm Dana Inc in a USD6.1 billion deal that will create a new UK company listed in New York to be called Dana PLC. GKN shareholders will own 47% of this.

Also on Friday, Melrose reported that 5.8% of the shareholders of GKN have so far accepted its offer.

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