All over bar the shouting with Spotless?
Downer EDI says it won’t be lifting its $1.15 a share cash offer for Spotless, declaring its current $1.2 billion takeover bid to be “final.”
That means Spotless shareholders (excluding the 19.9% held by Downer) have only one of two options – to accept or to decline and face the possibility they could be locked into a minority position.
By declaring its bid to be final, Downer is ruling out any increase in the offer.
“The Downer board has determined that its offer price of $1.15 per Spotless share represents Downer’s final offer price in the absence of a superior proposal," Downer said in a release to the ASX on Wednesday.
Spotless shares closed on Tuesday at $1.09, and $1.08 yesterday.
Spotless’s board claims Downer’s offer is "opportunistic" and has been timed to take advantage of a historically low share price.
But when has a bid never been labelled ‘opportunistic by the target board in a hostile situation.
Downer says that its offer provides "certain, all cash value" for Spotless shares in contrast to the "risk, uncertainty and time involved in the delivery of value by Spotless."
Spotless shares were trading at 72.5¢ before Downer announced its takeover bid on March 21. Downer shares rose 1% to $6.035 yesterday, then fell back to $5.88, four cents a share under the price the company raised $1.1 billion in cash when it started the bid last month.
