Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Saputo offers to buy more shares

Saputo Inc. has made an offer of $8.77 Cdn to buy the remaining 12 per cent of shares of Australian dairy company Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Co.

It bought 88 per cent of the shares in 2014, giving it a platform to export to the Chinese and other Asian markets.

Its offer is 24.8 per cent above the Australian company's closing stock price on Friday.

However, Saputo's offer is below what it paid in 2014 when it offered between A$9.40 per WCB share and up to A$9.60 per share if at least 90 per cent of Warrnambool's shares were tendered.

The Australian and Canadian dollars are close to par.


The company said Monday that the only condition with the new offer is that enough shares are tendered to its offer to raise Saputo's ownership to 90 per cent.