Seaboard fails to buy enough shares to seal Kenya's Unga deal

Seaboard

20/07/2018 09:48

NAIROBI, July 20 (Reuters) - Hog producer Seaboard
Corporation  SEB.A  has failed to buy out  the three quarters of
minority shareholders in Kenyan agro-processor Unga Group
 UNGA.NR  that would have allowed it to eventually take the
company private, it said on Friday.
    The U.S. firm offered in February to buy the 46.15 percent
of Unga's shares that are held by minority shareholders and
listed on the Nairobi bourse. 
    The rest of the shares are owned by a local group of
investors via a vehicle called Victus Ltd, which supports
Seaboard's goal of buying out the minority shareholders and
eventually delisting the firm. 
    Seaboard, which had about 2 percent of Unga before the offer
with Victus which has a 50.93 percent stake, needed to acquire
three-quarters of the total issued share capital to be able to
take Unga private. It said it would comment further on the
outcome of the offer at a later date.
    Seaboard and its allies managed to secure control of 70
percent of the company after the offer, which was priced at 40
shillings ($0.3974), a 31.75 percent premium on the shares'
250-day weighted average price. Unga's current market
capitalisation is around 3 billion shillings ($30 million),
according to Reuters data.
    Market participants said Unga, whose businesses range from
wheat and maize milling to baking and animal nutrition products,
faced growing competition from unlisted companies, hence the
desire to also take it private and operate on a similar footing.
  

($1 = 100.6500 Kenyan shillings)

 (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
 ((duncan.miriri@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +254 20 4991239;
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