Bring out the nice glasses, United Malt’s French suitor has signed on the dotted line!
Street Talk can reveal Malteries Soufflet firmed up its $5-a-share bid for ASX-listed United Malt at the weekend, more than three months after it lobbed the indicative proposal. The target board has blessed the deal and is expected to tell shareholders on Monday morning.
That spells the end of United Malt’s three years on the ASX boards as a standalone company after it was spun out of GrainCorp. It began trading at $4.10 a share in March 2020 and is now leaving at $5 a pop, or about 22 per cent higher.
The deal fulfils GrainCorp’s prophecy that separating United Malt would help it catch “control premium”. It’s also a sigh of relief for investors who have seen the stock trade as low as $2.85 and had to endure a long wait on the due diligence.
UBS has changed tack from a $880 million IPO to a trade sale for Luye’s Group’s spin-off of its Australian-Singaporean hospitals business Aurora Healthcare.