How is Castor’s bid for Cerved going
On 9 September the Castor takeover of the Ion di Pignataro fund on Cerved closes. 31% of subscriptions, target of 66.67%. Here are names, numbers and controversies. Emanuela Rossi's article
The takeover bid of Castor Bidco, belonging to the English fund Ion Investment of the Bolognese financier Andrea Pignataro, is about to end with Cerved . In August, there was a rise in the takeover bid – launched on July 16 – after that within a few days the board of directors of Cerved had deemed the first price offered to be "not appropriate". Just about the expiration date there is an acceleration of the adhesions. But let's see what has been happening for a few weeks now.
THE RELAUNCH OF CASTOR BIDCO
As mentioned, Castor Bidco in August reported that the price of the takeover bid went from € 9.50 to € 10.20 per share: therefore, the increased consideration incorporated a 44.9% premium compared to the official price of the shares as of March 5, the last trading day before March 8, the date of announcement of the takeover bid, and a premium of 53.6% compared to the weighted arithmetic average of the official prices recorded by the shares in the previous twelve months the date of announcement. If all 195,274,979 shares object of the offer are tendered, including treasury shares, and on the basis of the price as it has been increased, the maximum outlay would be equal to 1,991,804,786 euros, just under 2 billion. Castor Bidco also changed the condition on the minimum threshold: from a stake in Cerved's share capital equal to at least 50% plus one share to a stake of 80%. Furthermore, the subscription period for the offer has been extended from 31 August to 9 September.
On the occasion, the Cerved board – chaired by Gianandrea De Bernardis – informed that it had taken note of the relaunch of the takeover bid, highlighting that the new price "is within the range of congruity indicated in the issuer's press release, albeit in the lower part of these range ". In particular, the ranges of financial advisors go from 9.7 to 12.1 euros for Ubs, from 10 to 11.7 euros for Morgan Stanley and from 10.2 to 14.1 euros for Mediobanca.
WHO HAS ALREADY JOINED THE OPA
Mutuionline, Sand Grove and Tig Advisors also said yes to Pignataro's offer, as reported by Milano Finanza .
Mutuionline will bring Castor Bidco about 5.86 million shares as a dowry since it deemed the consideration offered to be adequate and also Sand Grove Capital Management, which currently owns 3.06% of Cerved, has undertaken to join the takeover bid with its entire share package. Following, reports the economic-financial newspaper, will be Tig Advisors which will tender its 200 shares on behalf of its customers and will indicate to the counterparties of derivative instruments with underlying 12.1 million Cerved shares (equal to 6.23% of the capital) your preference for subscribing to the offer.
It should be noted that at the close of the Stock Exchange on 8 September – therefore 24 hours after the expiry of the takeover bid – the subscriptions were equal to 31.83%, almost half of the 66.67% indicated by Castor Bidc as the minimum essential threshold for the success of the operation.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/come-va-lopa-di-castor-su-cerved/ on Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:03:39 +0000.