30th Dec 2016 09:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Severn Trent PLC on Friday repeated its call for Dee Valley Group PLC shareholders to take no action with regards to Ancala Fornia Ltd's rival takeover bid, as Ancala extended the deadline for acceptances for its offer, which has 41% backing.
FTSE 100 water and waste utility Severn Trent noted the extension of the offer and the level of acceptances Ancala has received so far, but stressed that almost all of the acceptances had been obtained from shareholders who already had signed irrevocable undertakings to accept Ancala's offer prior to Severn Trent's rival proposal being announced.
Severn Trent noted that neither the terms of the irrevocable undertakings nor the acceptances require shareholders to vote against Severn Trent's offer, and as such, Severn Trent's offer for the smaller London-listed water company can "successfully complete".
Ancala said earlier Friday that it had received acceptances in respect of 41.17% of voting ordinary shares for its takeover offer for Dee Valley and has extended the deadline for acceptances, as it had failed to reach the "simple majority" it requires for its offer to go through.
Ancala's offer for Dee Valley is 1,706 pence per voting ordinary share and 1,602p per non-voting ordinary share.
However, Ancala has faced competition from Severn Trent, which has made an offer at 1,825.00p per ordinary Dee Valley share and a comparable cash price of 1,713.00p for each non-voting share. Dee Valley shares were untraded Friday, last quoted at 1,814.00p.
Back in November, the directors of Dee Valley withdrew their recommendation for Ancala's bid in favour of the offer from Severn Trent. In December, Ancala said it would not be increasing its offer, and additionally that it would reduce the level of its acceptance condition to a "simple majority" of voting ordinary shares from the previous acceptance condition of 75%.
Ancala said Friday it has received valid acceptances in respect of a total of 1.7 million voting ordinary shares, or 41.17%.
It has extended its offer, which will now remain open for acceptances until January 13. Ancala encouraged Dee Valley shareholders who have not yet accepted the offer to do so "as soon as possible".
Severn Trent reiterated that all Dee Valley shareholders should continue to take no action in regards to Ancala's proposal in order to "benefit from Severn Trent's significantly higher offer", and for voting ordinary shareholders to vote in favour of its bid at shareholder and court meetings to be held on January 12.
Shares in Severn Trent were down 0.7% at 2,221.27p Friday.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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