This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
OAKS Hotels & Resorts has told investors to take no action and labelled Minor International’s takeover offer as opportunistic and inadequate.
Minor’s subsidiary Delicious Food Holding (Singapore) Pte Ltd has made an offer of $0.35 per share for all shares in Oaks.
Oaks’ chairman Doug Wong said superior offers for your shares may emerge in the near term.
“PricewaterhouseCoopers as receivers and managers of Centrepoint Holdings Pty Ltd and The Oaks Apartment Management Pty Ltd, have advised that they expect to sell their 34.35% stake during May 2011.
“It is important to note that, if one party acquires a stake of more than 20% through the PwC sale process, that party is required to make a takeover offer to all shareholders at a price that is no less than the price that it acquired the PwC controlled stake in Oaks,” he added.
Oaks is one of Australia’s largest Management Letting Rights company and is the third largest serviced apartment hotel and resort operator in Australia with 4,373 apartments under management.
Wong said the inadequate Minor offer has been opportunistically timed to coincide with several negative impacts on the company’s current share price, including the pending sale of the 34.35% stake by PwC, and the expectation of a possible capital raising as a part of a debt refinancing process.
He added that Oaks’s shares are currently undervalued and trading at a significant discount relative to its domestic and international peers.
Wong also said Minor’s intentions are not clear and has not identified any concrete steps it will take to assist with the growth and management of Oaks.
Minor International is already a major shareholder in Oaks, holding a 14.96% stake in the company and is poised to acquire an additional 5% from Oaks two directors, Yuan Lin (David) Wu and Brett Pointon, respectively.
In addition the takeover offer, Oaks is also facing destabilisation in the boardroom with founder and former CEO Brett Pointon, who is seeking to overthrow the board and reappoint himself as the CEO.
Poiton and four shareholders associated with the Pointon family have requisitioned a meeting to vote on eight resolutions.
Six resolutions seeks to remove the several board members including Douglas Wong as chairman and director; Stephen Lonie as director; Alan Gray as director; Colin Archer as director; and John Cowley as director.
The other two resolutions seek to appoint Phillip Downie as a director as well as Brett Pointon as CEO.
Australian Property Journal