3 months ago
26
Jamaican company Seprod Limited is seeking to increase its stake in Trinidadian distributor A.S. Bryden & Sons Holdings Limited, ASBH, by almost 30 per cent, via a share swap.
Minority shareholders in A.S. Bryden & Sons Holdings Limited, ASBH, have until June 5 to say whether they will accept an offer from parent company Seprod Limited to acquire up to 447.49 million of ASBH shares.
The offer represents 29.85 per cent of ASBH’s outstanding shares. At full take-up of the current offer, Seprod’s stake would grow to 79.99 per cent from its current 50.14 per cent interest. Republic Wealth Management Limited is acting as lead broker for the offer.
Seprod says it will not take up all the offer shares that have been deposited by accepting shareholders, were the tenders to rise above the target. Instead, it will take up the offered shares on a pro-rated basis according to the number of shares deposited, so that its ultimate holding of ASBH shares will not exceed 79.99, a shade below the 80 per cent that would trigger a delisting of the ASBH stock.
The Bryden Group has its main operating subsidiaries in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and Guyana. They include A.S. Bryden & Sons (Trinidad) Limited, Bryden pi Limited, F.T. Farfan Limited, Franco Trading & Distribution Limited, Micon Holdings Limited (St Lucia), Stansfeld Scott Barbados Limited, and Caribbean Producers (Jamaica) Limited.
Shareholders who take up the offer will be issued 396.43 ordinary shares in Seprod for every 1,000 ASBH shares acquired by the Jamaican company. Last Friday, when the offer hit the market, the ASBH stock was trading at $33.99 per share on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, while Seprod’s shares then traded at $81.71.
Shares in ASBH have dipped since then to settle at $32 at midweek, while Seprod dipped then rallied to $82.05 per share.
Seprod says it intends to maintain ASBH as a listed company on the JSE, and to apply for the shares to be listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange as well.
Seprod Limited is a publicly traded Jamaican company engaged in manufacturing and distribution across various sectors, including food and pharmaceuticals. Its revenue last year was about $133 billion, while its net profit amounted to more than $4 billion, according to its preliminary year-end financial report. The company employs over 3,400 people across the Caribbean.
Seprod says its purchase of additional shares in ASBH is meant to better align the two companies, with the aim of creating a regionally integrated distribution platform.
English (US) ·