Shipowner Nicolas Saverys and his family are making a new effort to take Belgian gas shipping and infrastructure company Exmar private in an offer worth €105.7m ($111.1m).
Saverex, the holding company of the family of Nicolas Saverys, said it intends to launch a public takeover bid for all the shares of Exmar not already owned by it or its affiliates.
The family company is offering to pay €11.50 per share for all the outstanding shares.
The bid covers 9,189,369 shares or 15.44% of Exmar, pricing the offer at €105,677,743.50.
Exmar said the price represents a premium of 38.6% to the closing price of the shares on Friday 29 November, the last full day of trading before its stock was suspended by the Financial Services & Markets Authority (FSMA) on 2 December.
Saverex currently controls 48,346,694 Exmar shares or 81.25% of the company.
Exmar, considered affiliated with Saverex, holds 1,956,013 treasury shares or 3.29%.
Nicolas Saverys holds 7,924 shares in Exmar amounting to 0.01% of the company.
Exmar said the bid is conditional on an acceptance threshold of 95%.
It said that if Saverex and those acting with it hold at least 95% of the shares of Exmar and have acquired at least 90% of the shares being bid for, the Saverys family company intends to launch a “simplified squeeze-out bid”.
Exmar, now under the leadership of Nicolas Saverys’ son Carl-Antoine Saverys, said that subject to review by its board, it unanimously supports and recommends the offer.
Saverex needs to launch a formal takeover bid and file a draft prospectus with the authorities to move forward with its bid.
KBC Securities is acting as financial adviser to Saverex.
This is the latest in a series of moves by Nicolas Saverys’ family to take Exmar private again.
Takeover vehicle Saverex launched a first offer in April 2023.
But in September 2023, it fell short of its 95% stock acceptance level.
During this process Saverex did not raise its original offer price of €12.10 per share, minus the dividend of €1 per share, which was paid on 24 May 2023, resulting in a price of €11.10 per share.
Last year’s take-private effort drew a complaint from the FSMA over a letter Exmar sent to its shareholders in August 2023. The company later asked recipients to disregard this communication.
