The Saverys family’s private shipping company CMB said on Wednesday it is reopening its bid for the 7.75% of Belgian tanker owner Euronav it does not already own, to comply with a past court ruling and regulatory findings that it slightly underpaid in a previous mandatory offer.
In the widely anticipated move, the new acceptance period of the reopening begins on 23 October and closes on 21 November at $12.66 per share.
This considers the initial bid of $18.43, adds $0.52, and subtracts $6.29 for dividends paid since.
The reopening seems to be a symbolic gesture since the closing price in the US on Tuesday was $16.05, indicating that investors have no reason to tender their shares to CMB.
“The supervisory board of CMB.Tech unanimously recommends that shareholders do not tender their shares in the reopening,” CMB said on Wednesday.
CMB.Tech is a Brussels and New York-listed owner of VLCCs and suezmaxes previously known as Euronav.
The offer, initially for the remaining 43% of the company, is now being reopened for shareholders who did not sell when investors tendered their stock in March.
Complications came after rebel shareholder FourWorld Capital Management took CMB to court seeking to unwind Euronav’s sale of 24 VLCCs to John Fredriksen’s Frontline last year to end a boardroom deadlock over Euronav’s future.
FourWorld also wants to annul the subsequent mandatory offer for Euronav and its merger with CMB’s clean shipping company, CMB.Tech.
