Belgian shipowner Nicolas Saverys’ second effort to take Exmar private kicks off today amid speculation as to whether he will be successful this time.
Saverys’ company Saverex is offering EUR 12.10 per share, minus the dividend of EUR 1.00 per share which was paid on 24 May 2023, resulting in a price of EUR 11.10 per share for the remaining stock in Exmar.
This applies to 30.3m outstanding Exmar shares giving the offer a total value of €367m ($397m).
The shipowner vowed to continue with its bid to buyout the company after a first attempt concluded in July without reaching the 95% of stock acceptance level set by Saverex.
In this first offer, shareholders representing just 29.1% of outstanding Exmar stock accepted the deal.
But there has been no increase in the bid offer price in this fresh attempt leading to speculation among those in the financial community following the company that this could meet resistance from shareholders.
Saverex now holds 44,234,979 shares in Exmar representing 74.35% of the outstanding stock.
The company detailed that Nicolas Saverys holds 7,924 shares, Exmar 2,026,013 while Saverex and persons affiliated with it together hold 46,268,916 shares.
Together it said this represents 77.76% of the outstanding shares in Exmar – referred to in its statement as “the target”.
Exmar opted to reopen its bid for the company voluntarily and without conditions from 28 August until Friday 15 September 2023.
The company invited shareholders who have “not yet accepted” its bid to take it up during this second acceptance period.
Payment for shares offered during this period has been scheduled for Monday 2 October 2023.
Exmar said that since the announcement of the results of the initial acceptance period, its share has traded slightly above the bid price.
The company said Saverex “is of the opinion that this increase of the share price may be caused by market speculation regarding a potential increase of the bid price.”
But it stressed that Saverex believes “the bid price adequately reflects the fair value” of Exmar which it said is confirmed in its prospectus and by those shareholders who had sold their stock in the first round.
Exmar said it is for these reasons that it has decided not to increase the bid price.
It stressed that all parties should only rely on communications from the company or Saverex during the process.
Exmar is due to announce its second quarter results on 8 September.
Analysts are expecting to see healthy returns for the company, largely on the back of the strong LPG market and the charter returns on Exmar's floating storage and regasification unit.
