Finaccess attracts 91% acceptances in partial takeover offer of Restaurant Brands

Wednesday 27th March 2019

Finaccess Capital will scale down acceptances in its bid to secure three-quarters of the shares in Restaurant Brands New Zealand.

The Mexican firm's partial takeover bid to buy as many as 93.6 million shares at $9.45 apiece closed yesterday and attracted 91 percent acceptances, or 113.9 million shares.

Finaccess declared its bid unconditional earlier this month having crossed the 50 percent minimum threshold it wanted. Under the Takeovers Code, that gave it an extra 10 days to reach its targeted 75 percent.

The 91 percent level of shareholder uptake would have been enough to enforce compulsory mop-up provisions in a full takeover, but because Finaccess only wanted control, the firm will scale down how much it buys from selling shareholders.

The shares hit a record $9.30 on March 25 and were recently at $8.89.

The Finaccess offer values Restaurant Brands at $1.18 billion and was a 24 percent premium to the $7.60 share price the company was trading at before the bid emerged. Director Stephen Copulos agreed to sell his 8.6 percent stake at the get-go and the independent directors threw their backing behind it after the independent adviser valued Restaurant Brands at $8.15-8.92, or $1.02-1.11 billion.

Chief executive Russell Creedy and chief financial officer Grant Ellis also elected to sell into the offer.

The Mexican firm has said it will keep Restaurant Brands' dividend policy unchanged in the near term and promised not to de-list the company in the following 12 months unless it mounted a full takeover. If it does seek to mop-up the remaining shares, it has promised not to offer a lower price, subject to wider movements on the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index.

(BusinessDesk)

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