November 4 (SeeNews) - The management of Croatian confectionery producer Kras [ZSE:KRAS] said on Monday it considers too low the price offered by local meat producer Braca Pivac in its buyout bid for the remaining 69.27% in Kras it does not yet own.
Braca Pivac launched the bid on October 23, offering to pay 430 kuna ($64/58 euro) per each Kras share, some 2.5 times lower than the current market price.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Even though the proposed price is in line with the takeover rules, the management of Kras believes that Braca Pivac has not taken into account the fact that in certain instances during the three-month period preceding the buyout launch date, Kras was trading at 505 kuna, while in the period after Braca Pivac announced its takeover plans the share price soared to 1,090 kuna, Kras said in a statement filed with the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE).
Last month, Braca Pivac said that the price they are offering is above the average share price of 427 kuna in the three-month period prior to September 9 when it became legally obliged to launch the bid, as confirmed by ZSE and the Croatian financial regulator HANFA.
Kras closed flat at 1,050 kuna on Monday.
The company's share price has been on the rise since Braca Pivac announced its takeover plan in early September, after which Cyprus-registered Kappa Star started to buy heavily into Kras. In several weeks, Kappa Star, which is owned by Serbian businessman Nebojsa Saranovic, acquired more than 20% shareholding interest in Kras.
According to November 4 ZSE data, Kappa Star's stake in Kras has already risen to 24.6% versus 30.73% held by Braca Pivac. The third largest shareholder is local company Kras-ESOP with 18.45%, while the remainder belongs to smaller shareholders.
In late September, Kappa Star said in response to a query by the financial regulator that it had no intention to launch a voluntary buyout bid for the Kras shares it did not own yet.
(1 euro = 7.4482 kuna)