- Pause in trading at 9:50am AEST
- Roc's eighth offer is $1.29 per unit
- Alternative is $353.65M asset sale
This morning, Vitalharvest (ASX: VTH) entered a trading pause before announcing it received yet another offer.
The eighth Roc Private Equity offer is for $1.29 per unit, or in the instance Vitalharvest unitholders do not vote in favour, a $353.65 million asset sale is up for consideration.
As has been the trend so far, the “VTH RE Board considered the Eighth Roc Offer and determined that the Eighth Roc Offer is a Superior Proposal to the Eighth MAFM offer received on 10 May.”
This time, however, rather than being on the same terms as previous Roc Private Equity offers, “Roc has proposed certain differences, including not requiring a matching right provision in favour of Roc.”
A matching right period has commenced, and “MAFM now has five business days to provide a matching or superior further revised offer to the Eighth Roc Offer.”
Additionally, Roc Private Equity said that it:
“…intends to overbid [that further MAFM offer] (and any subsequent offer) to deliver scheme proceeds to VTH unitholders equivalent to $0.01 per unit more than [the further MAFM offer] subject to [Roc] having a five business day confirmation period to confirm whether it will proceed with, and not withdraw, the Further Roc Offer”.
Roc Private Equity
The background
It is the sixteenth offer overall, the last offer made by Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management (MAFM) was for $1.28 per unit or $349.95 million in assets.
That offer was made public back on 11 May, the original offer to takeover VTH was made by MAFM in November for $1.00 or $300 million in assets.
Roc commenced its bid in late February, presenting an enticing offer of $1.08. That was followed by weekly news that either the offer was raised four cents by Roc, or MAFM equalling the offer.
Late in April, there was a flurry of activity where the premiums Roc put on its latest offers was reduced to two cents, eventually, MAFM broke with its trend and raised Roc’s offer one cent to $1.26.
In mid-May, the battle continued where the one-up-manship played out in a quick burst, from $1.27 to $1.28 in quick succession, MAFM came out on top.
