BEGA Cheese says it will consider its options surrounding its strategic stake in Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, as its final offer for the company in the three-way battle closes this Friday.
The cheese company was the first party to launch its bid for WCB on September 11, offering about $370m before Canada’s Saputo and Murray Goulburn entered the running.
Today, Bega said its offer of $2 plus 1.5 Bega shares (worth $8.66 in total at time of writing) would close at 7pm on Friday and would not be extended, all but ruling it out of the race.
It comes as dairy co-op Murray Goulburn urges shareholders in Warrnambool Cheese and Butter not to accept the offer from rival Saputo, after the Canadian dairy giant was made to raise its price for the company by the Takeovers Panel.
«We urge WCB shareholders not to rush their decision to sell their WCB shares,» Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou said.
Saputo has offered $9 per share for the target, or $9.20 if it secures more than 50 per cent of the company.
However, on Tuesday, Saputo said that should its holding reach 75 per cent, shareholders would receive $9.40 and $9.60 at 90 per cent, in an offer it said was final.
Yesterday Murray Goulburn said it had boosted its firepower to $770 million, hinting it could improve its $9.50 a share offer.
In a bidder’s statement lodged with the ASX the co-op said it wished to match a payment of as much as $1.31 a share in special dividends previously offered by Warrnambool to rival bidder Saputo. That would push up the value of its takeover offer as high as $10.81 a share.
Shares in Bega were up more than 2 per cent to $4.44 in mid afternoon trade.
Source: The australian