John Menzies (LSE:MNZS) has accepted a £560mln takeover proposal from Kuwait’s National Air Service (NAS) after weeks of public disagreement on a price.
The Edinburgh-based airport group accepted a 608p per share all-cash offer from NAS, a subsidiary of Agility Logistics, having previously rejected offers of 460p, 510p, 605p, and following a shares purchase last Thursday that took its stake up to 19%.
The purchase of 12 million shares last week by NAS saw Menzies’ share price surge 25% to 583p by close on Thursday, as it indicated any future offer could not fall below that figure, based on City takeover rules.
Menzies said it would recommend the offer to its board and would be providing NAS with access to management and due diligence information.
“The Board has considered the Final Proposal and indicated to NAS that it would be willing unanimously to recommend an offer at the financial terms of the Final Proposal to Menzies shareholders subject to the satisfactory resolution of all the other terms of the offer, including the approach to the customary regulatory approvals required to complete any transaction,” Menzies said in a statement.
The group described previous offers by NAS as “unsolicited and highly opportunistic”, stating that offers undervalued the company’s inherent value and its future prospects.
Menzies’ share price was up 0.69% in early trading following the news, with most gains from the proposed takeover priced in last week on the back of Menzies’ share purchase.