- Call option provided by Primewest Group
- Amounts to over 16% share in VTH
- PWG to exchange 30M shares for $29.5M
On Monday this week, the battle for Vitalharvest (ASX: VTH) seems to have come to an end.
The berry and citrus real estate company accepted the proposal from Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management (MAFM) for either a trust scheme takeover worth $1.26 per unit or an asset sale of $348.1 million, pending a unitholder vote.
Call option context
On 17 November last year, Primewest Group (ASX: PWG) provided Macquarie with a call option for the units held by PWG.
PWG is a substantial shareholder of Vitalharvest, and in June 2020, acquired a 100% interest in the manager of the ASX listed company. Primewest also became the largest unitholder of VTH with 11.8% held, that percentage is now approximately 16.2%.
Today
In ASX releases by both Vitalharvest and Primewest made today, MAFM has now exercised its call option over the PWG owned units.
The call option from Primewest to Macquarie is for 30 million units in VTH, the settlement for the units $29.5 million.
That number amounts to approximately 16.2% of Vitalharvest, with a settlement expected approximately a week from now.
Addendum: Happenings to date
The bidding battle for berry and citrus company Vitalharvest got underway in late February this year.
Whilst the original proposal from MAFM was made in November last year, Roc Private Equity made a tilt for VTH on 26 February this year.
It seemed to be a knockout offer at the time, $1.08 per unit, up from the $1.00 offered by MAFM.
Events played out week by week with a baker’s dozen of offers exchanged, Roc upping the offer multiple times, Macquarie equalling them.
In a flurry of activity last week, MAFM then raised the offer amount instead of equalling, finally securing the deal Monday this week.
