Brierley's Mercantile wins over Ask Funding board in sweeter takeover bid

Thursday 30th July 2015

Ron Brierley's Mercantile Investment has won over the board of takeover target Ask Funding after sweetening its offer last week.

Brisbane based Ask Funding today said its board has reconsidered the upgraded offer of 8 Australian cents per share and will recommend it to shareholders. Ask Funding has been winding down its businesses since 2011 and servicing its loan books to repay Bank of Western Australia, with a view to distributing surplus funds to shareholders.

It rejected Mercantile's original offer of 7 Australian cents per share, and today said it anticipates its upcoming audited accounts will show a net tangible asset value of 8.5 cents per share. The ASX listed stock last traded at 7.2 Australian cents.

Mercantile already owns 19.9 percent of Ask Funding, and launched a takeover bid at the start of July, saying the offer provided them certainty against the risks of trying to realise the remainder of the loan book.

The firm is at least the third diversified investment vehicle for Brierley, who built Guinness Peat Group after being forced out of Brierley Investments in the early 1990s. The group named for him struggled to recover from the 1987 share market crash and now exists as GuocoLeisure, with its primary listing on the Singapore stock exchange.

Brierley seized control of ASX listed Mercantile, then called India Equities Fund, in 2012 when shareholders agreed to a deal giving him 54 percent of the company and its chair in return for his stakes in Copper Strike, Trinity Group, ING Community Living Group, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries and Trojan Equity.

The holding has since been watered down to 46 percent after Mercantile completed a takeover of Murchison Metals via a scheme of arrangement, which let investors take either cash or shares.

Since then he brought in his old comrades Ron Langley and Gary Weiss via a A$2 million placement.

The company has since added a secondary listing on the NZX, where its shares rose 1.3 percent to 15.5 cents. They last traded on the ASX at 14 Australian cents.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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