Wilh Wilhelmsen’s attempted takeover of subsidiary Treasure did not get very far.
The investment group’s NOK 20 ($1.91) offer to buy out Treasure’s minority shareholders yielded just over 1m tenders, or 0.52% of all outstanding shares, it said after the close on Wednesday.
Thomas Wilhelmsen-led Wilh Wilhelmsen owned 77.96% of all Treasure shares before the 7 June offer.
Now, it owns 78.48%.
The takeover offer was made to create a “liquidity event” in Treasure’s shares, Wilh Wilhelmsen said, with the intention of raising its stake and, once the 90% ownership threshold was reached, re-evaluating Treasure’s listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Treasure has an 11% stake in South Korean shipowner Hyundai Glovis worth $528m.
The offer was controversial. Treasure’s independent directors, Marianne Hagen and Benedicte Bakke Agerup, commissioned a fairness opinion from Pareto Securities this month, which found the price did not constitute a fair valuation of the company.
They said Treasure shares have traded at a significant discount over the past year.
Investors seemed to share Hagen and Agerup’s opinion: TradeWinds reported on 15 June that tenders totalling just over 18,000 shares had been made in three separate blocks.
Treasure shares were trading at NOK 19.20 early on Thursday, a NOK 0.80 dip from the open and a NOK 1.20 drop from Wednesday’s close.
Over the past 52 weeks, Treasure shares have traded between NOK 14.90 and NOK 21.50.
It has more than 205m shares outstanding.
