KEY POINTS:
A full takeover offer by Australian private equity firm Crescent Capital Partners for Abano Healthcare Group has opened, with offer documents being mailed to shareholders today.
Crescent's offer of $5.20 per share for the entire company compares to an unsuccessful partial bid of $5 a share from Masthead Portfolios which lapsed last week.
Masthead, a 19.9 per cent shareholder in Abano, had sought to lift its stake to 51 per cent, but Abano's board has rejected both its current and a previous offer as being too low.
The board has also advised shareholders to wait until they receive a copy of Abano's target company statement for the Crescent bid, along with an independent adviser's report, which Abano hopes to send out shortly after Christmas.
Crescent, which has already bought a 10.9 per cent stake in Abano from Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust for $5.15 a share , today said its $5.20 offer represented a 53 per cent premium to the closing price of Abano shares before the announcement of the Masthead partial offer.
It was also higher than any share price achieved by Abano despite takeover activity, and with the market fully informed about the company's projections.
Crescent executive director Michael Alscher said the offer provided shareholders with the opportunity to substantially capture the full value of Abano's long term projections now, rather than be exposed to the risk of Abano not achieving its targets.
"We believe those projections are very optimistic. In our view they are not based on a realistic assessment of the market here or in Australia," he said.
Based on "extremely positive market feedback", Crescent expected a strong take-up of its offer from shareholders.
The outlook was not good for Abano shareholders if the Crescent offer failed, Mr Alscher said.
"Looking ahead, shareholders will be exposed to the prospect of a material fall in the value of their shares if our offer is not successful and no other offer is forthcoming."
Given Crescent's current 10.9 per cent stake, another full offer was unlikely.
"We encourage shareholders to sell into our offer early as we believe our offer is compelling and that no better offer will eventuate in the foreseeable future," he said.
"Shareholders can also be reassured by the provision of a withdrawal clause within our offer which allows shareholders to withdraw their acceptance in the event of a higher full offer being made for Abano."
Abano shares were up 4c at lunchtime today to $4.99.
- NZPA
