Greencore Group plc has announced the results of its tender offer, which it announced last month.
The tender offer closed at 1.00pm on Tuesday (January 29); under the move shares were offered – going for €2.25 / ordinary share (£1.95 / ordinary share).
The maximum number of ordinary shares authorised by shareholders under the tender offer, some 261,025,641 ordinary shares, will be acquired for a total cost of £509 (€586) million, the company has announced.
This represents approximately 36.92% of the issued ordinary share capital of the company, as of today (Thursday, January 31).
The tender offer was oversubscribed, with a total of 296,192,127 ordinary shares validly tendered by qualifying shareholders, Greencore revealed.
Qualifying shareholders who tendered ordinary shares equal to or less than their individual basic entitlement will have their tender accepted in full.
Qualifying shareholders who validly tendered in excess of this will have their tender accepted in respect of their individual entitlement, plus approximately 74.76% of the number of ordinary shares validly tendered in excess of entitlements.
Under the terms of the option agreement, Goldman Sachs may require the company to acquire ordinary shares purchased by Goldman Sachs pursuant to the tender offer.
It is expected that Greencore will complete the acquisition of these ordinary shares later today; the company is to make an announcement on this “in due course”.
As set out in a circular issued by the company, it is anticipated that the proceeds payable to qualifying shareholders for the certificated ordinary shares acquired under the tender offer will be dispatched by no later than February 7, 2019 in the form of a cheque.
For uncertificated ordinary shares (electronic shares), CREST account holders will have their CREST accounts credited by no later than February 7, 2019.
It is also anticipated that balancing share certificates (in respect of certificated ordinary shares) for revised certificated holdings in the case of partially successful tenders and share certificates in respect of unsuccessful tenders of certificated ordinary shares will be dispatched by no later than February 7, 2019.
Meanwhile, holders of uncertificated ordinary shares will have their CREST accounts credited for revised uncertificated holdings of ordinary share (or in the case of unsuccessful tenders, for entire holdings of ordinary shares) by no later than February 7, 2019.
