M&A Monday was back – although it was as much about rejections as it was new deals.
Starting with the new deals, craft breweries and distilleries supplier United Malt Group is on the receiving end of a bid from a European player, Malteries Soufflet, with a bid expected to be confirmed on Tuesday morning.
It is understood the pair have been in confidential talks for more than the past 12 months, before the offer landed. UMG’s expected to kick off a formal process, which will include gauging investors’ reaction. Plenty of due diligence has already been done.
The bid’s expected at $4.80 to $5 a share – investors said they would like the top of that range, please. The talks seem pretty friendly, with United Malt happy to try to find a way to maximise value for investors.
In other takeover news, InvoCare’s pushed back against TPG Capital but invited it in for some confidential talks, while Healius followed its big two shareholders in rejecting Australian Clinical Labs.
United Malt Group’s taking the long-road to a near $2 billion takeover, with patient talks over the course of a year or so to culminate with a formal process and a farewell tour to get investors’ blessings.
It’s time for copper miner Sandfire Resources’ executives to put on their M&A hats again just 1½ years after they spent $US1.9 billion on Spain’s MATSA, as a private equity owned Botswana mine lands on the auction block.
Northern Star, the country’s second-largest gold producer, is making a rare trip to the debt capital markets, with a BBB- rating from S&P for its unsecured notes.
