This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SHAREHOLDERS have rejected the Simonds and Roche families’ 40 cents per share takeover offer for homebuilder Simonds Group.
Simonds share price fall 10% and closed 4 cents lower at 36 cents in light of the latest development.
The families’ joint company, SR Residential, launched a privatisation bid in September this year to buyback Simonds Group for 40 cents per share, which was below the value the Simonds family had cashed in during the float almost two years ago at $1.78 per share.
The Simonds family pocketed $151 million from the listing of the homebuilding company in November 2014, which raised $161 million for the IPO. Its joint takeover bid to buyback the company from investors was approximately $42 million.
Independent board committee chair Susan Oliver said the proposal has been terminated by mutual agreement of the parties.
Oliver said proxy votes received by 27 November indicated that the proposal was not supported by holders of the majority of shares eligible to be voted.
“As a consequence, the scheme implementation agreement has been terminated and the scheme meeting scheduled for 29 November 2016 will not proceed.
“The independent directors felt compelled to bring this proposal to shareholders for their consideration. Shareholders holding the majority of shares eligible to be voted have chosen not to support the transaction and we respect their decision.
“We note that since announcement of the scheme, more than half of the shares eligible to vote on the scheme have been sold by Simonds’ shareholders at a price close to, or above, the offer price of $0.40, meaning that a number of Simonds’ shareholders were afforded the opportunity to exit at a significant premium to the trading prices prior to that announcement,” Oliver said.
Australian Property Journal
