KEY POINTS:
The country's richest family made a takeover bid yesterday for power generator and retailer King Country Energy and snared a stake in eftpos company Provenco.
Todd Energy made an offer for the two-thirds of King Country Energy which it does not already own. The offer of $4.40 a share is a 9 per cent premium to the last traded price. The stock trades on the Unlisted market.
The bid values the company, formed after the 1999 National Party reforms forced the break-up of the old regional electric power boards, at $82.5 million.
King Country Electric chairman Tony Palmer, chairman of the board's independent committee, suspended trading in the company's shares until Monday.
He advised shareholders to take no action until the committee had assessed the bid.
Meanwhile, Todd Capital, the Todd family's investment arm, has grabbed a 12.9 per cent stake in eftpos company Provenco through a placement at 96 cents per share.
The share placement, costing $17.3 million, was at a 4.3 per cent premium to Monday's closing price, usually an optimistic share price signal for such a placement. Provenco's stock rose 7 cents to 99 cents yesterday.
Provenco has been seen as ripe for merger with fellow listed eftpos company Cadmus with some key shareholders such as Navman founder Peter Maire and The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall having large common shareholdings.
Provenco chairman David Wolfenden said the company was delighted Todd had invested and it had offered Todd a seat on the board.
- NZPA
