Tassal rejects offers
The New Brunswick-based operation belonging to the Cooke family has already branched out with salmon farms in the US State of Maine and in southern Chile. It wasn’t the only company shown the door by the Board of Directors of Tassal, as Michael Bennett of The Australian reported yesterday (February 23);
SHARES in Tassal Group slumped today after Australia's biggest salmon farmer failed to find a buyer, following its rejection of a higher offer from private equity group Pacific Equity Partners (PEP). Tassal last December appointed advisory firm Gresham to assist with its strategic review, after receiving an expression of interest from PEP for a potential offer of $1.80 - $1.90 a share, or up to $278 million. Despite receiving an updated proposal from an unnamed party, to potentially acquire a controlling interest in Tassal at $1.90 per share cash, the Tasmanian firm today stayed its course that the price “significantly undervalues” the company. PEP is understood to have made the updated offer. Tassal, which is believed to have also received interest from Canadian giant Cooke Aquaculture, said it has terminated further discussions with interested parties regarding deals at this price level, and added that it would end its strategic review.
Should parties submit change of control proposals at higher price levels, Tassal said, “the board will continue to assess and evaluate any proposal on its merits”. “Tassal’s board considers that this price significantly undervalues Tassal when considering a number of financial metrics including a valuation of the strategic plan. “In addition, Tassal canvassed the views of a number of its key shareholders in relation to the strategic review. “In these discussions, the price objective of many of these key shareholders in a change of control situation is well above the indicative price of $1.90 per share.” In late trade today, Tassal shares traded down 6.3 per cent at $1.645.
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