McCashin's Brewery has acquired an option to buy almost 20 per cent of food and beverage investor Veritas Investments at more than twice the recent market price.
Interests connected with former Veritas chief executive Michael Morton have agreed to sell 8.6 million shares in the business – almost 19.9 per cent – to 660 Main Road Stoke, which trades as McCashin's.
The transaction is in the form of an option that expires at the close of trading on March 29. The option, dated today, requires a $50,000 deposit be paid within five days of the option being executed. That sum will then be deducted from the 20 cents-per-share, or $1.7 million, purchase price.
Veritas shares were trading at 9 cents each before the option was disclosed through NZX. They rose 11 per cent to 10 cents, taking their gain the past year to 78 per cent.
Auckland-based Veritas is focusing on its bars and hospitality offerings, having sold out in the past two years from disastrous forays into the Mad Butcher and Nosh grocery businesses. Veritas paid $40 million for the meat retailer in 2013 and sold the franchise for just $8 million last year and had faced pressure from its former banker, ANZ, for repayment of $27 million in loans before resetting as a smaller, hospitality-focused company.
