Richfield International, an ASX-listed shipping firm, urged shareholders to take no action while it reviews a takeover offer from veteran corporate raider Sir Ron Brierley's Mercantile Investment.
Richfield received an unsolicited on-market takeover offer of A20c per share from Mercantile on December 23, the Perth-based company said. The shares have been unchanged at A20c since December 22, and have risen 135 per cent this year.
Mercantile, chaired by Brierley, has increased its stake to 23.6 per cent of Richfield from 19.9 per cent. The Sydney-based investor built its initial stake from a forced sale in August when Australia's Takeovers Panel deemed a transaction breached disclosure obligations.
Richfield said its directors would review Mercantile's statement, and urged shareholders to wait until the board had made a formal response in its target statement in January.
Brierley seized control of ASX-listed Mercantile, then called India Equities Fund, in 2012 when shareholders agreed to a deal giving him 54 per cent 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.
