13th Feb 2017 12:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dee Valley Group PLC on Monday said seven disgruntled shareholders opposed to the takeover of the business by Severn Trent PLC have confirmed that they will not lodge a formal appeal against a recent court decision that sanctioned the deal.
The UK court sanctioned the scheme that will facilitate the takeover offer last week, but granted certain shareholders leave to appeal the decision.
On Monday, Dee Valley said "the opposing shareholders have confirmed to the company that no appeal will be made", and that it will push forward as planned.
"Accordingly, Dee Valley now intends to implement the scheme as soon as possible and will make a further announcement as to the anticipated timetable in due course. It is expected that the scheme will become effective this week," said Dee Valley.
"The Dee Valley board continues to recommend the scheme to the Dee Valley shareholders and Dee Valley shareholders should continue to take no action in respect of the Ancala offer and should not sell their shares to Ancala," Dee Valley added.
Severn Trent has been battling over Dee Valley with rival bidder Ancala Fornia Ltd. Severn Trent's offer has been recommended by the Dee Valley board at 1,825 pence per voting share and 1,713 pence for each non-voting share.
Severn Trent said last Friday that it was confident any appeal would have failed, stating that the Chancellor of the High Court that granted the shareholders leave of appeal, Geoffrey Vos, thought the "chances of success were low if not negligible".
In a statement later Monday, Severn Trent said it has received acceptances from 429,423 non-voting Dee Valley shares, equal to 87.05% of all the non-voting shares in issue. The deadline for acceptances has been extended until February 28
Ancala has made a lower offer for Dee Valley, but managed to lock-in a significant amount of support for its own deal from two significant shareholders prior to Severn Trent emerging on the scene.
Notably, although the Dee Valley board has backed the Severn Trent offer, the Dee Valley Employee Forum, a committee comprising employee and union representatives, has previously said it did not support the offer because of " the threat to employment at the Wrexham and Chester sites" plus other concerns.
Severn Trent shares were down 1.0% on Monday at 2,281.19 pence per share while Dee Valley shares remain suspended.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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Related Shares:
Severn Trent