Fliway shareholders back $55.4 million takeover

Fliway chief executive Duncan Hawkesby. Photo / File

Fliway Group shareholders have backed a $55.4 million takeover offer from Singaporean logistics firm Yang Kee Logistics, which will see another company leave the NZX.

At a special meeting in Auckland today, almost 99 per cent of votes cast were in favour of the $1.22 per share offer, which was at the upper end of the valuation range by independent adviser KordaMentha.

The transaction was via a scheme implementation agreement, meaning it needed at least 50 per cent of the total shares cast, and of that, 75 per cent had to be in favour. Almost 68 per cent of stock on issue was cast, including the holding of controlling shareholder and chief executive Duncan Hawkesby.

Chair Craig Stobo reiterated the independent directors' endorsement of the deal at the meeting, saying it wasn't made lightly.

"In recommending the scheme we have taken into account that whilst Fliway is well positioned to deliver growth in earnings, delivering this growth will not come without associated risk and is likely to take some time," he said in speech notes published on the stock exchange.

"We felt that the better course for shareholders was to take the opportunity to realise some of the future value of their Fliway shares now, and at a premium to Fliway's share price prior to the proposal."

The offer was a 13 per cent premium to the trading price prior to the announcement.

However, the shares were sold at $1.20 apiece in an initial public offering, the bottom end of the indicative range in March 2015, which valued Fliway at $54.5m. The shares fell 0.8 per cent to $1.20.

The transaction now needs High Court approval, with a hearing scheduled for December 19. Provided that's given the shares will be suspended from trading on December 21 and shareholders will be paid on January 4.