Seems like this is a complicated one. The dateline is on 3rd Aug for F&N to reply to Heineken's offer for the 40% stake in APB.
First of all, it started when OCBC, Great Eastern and Lee Rubber decided to sell its stakes in F&N (22%) amd APB(8.6%) to Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Obviously this does not rest well with Heineken.
Heineken has no obvious interest in the other parts of F&N save the brewery side and has made an offer of $50 for F&N's stake in APB. The offer is not conditional upon any due diligence or financing. Just subjected to the Boards recommendation to shareholders, shareholder approval and regulatory approval (if any). The offer will be extended to the APB minority shareholders as well. Currently F&N owns 40% of APB and Heineken owns 42%.
To complicate matters, Kirin Holdings (2503.T) owns 14.7% of F&N. and Mr Charoen is currently amassing shares in F&N raising his stake to 24.1% (as of 31st July 2012). This translates to roughly 40% of voting shares in F&N. I have not seen any Japanese firms giving up on overseas assets especially as growth is slowing down in Japan and where Kirin is involved, they are more likely to acquire than divest. Mr Charoen has made his decision obvious by trying to amass more shares in F&N to make sure they do not divest their stakes in APB.
Rumours are also flying that maybe Coca-cola will make a bid for the soft drink assets of F&N.
However as I look at this, I am not confident Heineken will get their hands on APB so easily. I am abit sceptical when there are cornerstone investors like Kirin, whom will not likely want to change status quo, and Mr Charoen, who just got his hands on F&N and APB shares. Unless a deal is done where these players can roll their interest into the new company, very likely nothing will happen.
I was actually tempted to short APB but have kept myself out of this. Lets see the verdict tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment