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ISCOVER
Despite Resimac's approaching the Takeovers Panel, the government body is refusing to intervene in the tug-of-war over the former RAMS loan book, RHG.
Resimac approached the Takeovers Panel late last month requesting that it restrain Cadence Capital, a 17.1 per cent shareholder in RHG, from voting against Resimac's offer for RHG.
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Cadence would be the only shareholder to benefit from the competing offer from Pepper which would pay shareholders, in part, with Cadence shares, Resimac claimed.
“Pepper has offered Cadence collateral benefits to induce it to vote against the Resimac Syndicate scheme of arrangement, thereby denying RHG shareholders (other than Cadence) a reasonable and equal opportunity to participate in the Resimac Syndicate proposal and that the Resimac Syndicate will be denied the opportunity to compete for corporate control of RHG,” the application from Resimac said.
However, the Takeovers Panel announced yesterday it would not intervene in the battle.
“The Panel concluded there was no reasonable prospect that it would make a declaration of unacceptable circumstances or the final orders sought,” director Allan Bulman said.
“One of the reasons the Panel reached this conclusion was that it did not think it would make an order preventing Cadence from voting on a scheme under which its shares could be expropriated.”
Speaking with The Adviser, Karl Siegling, chairman of Cadence Capital Limited, said he was pleased with the decision, although unsurprised.
“What Resimac were trying to do was effectively prevent the largest shareholder from voting for the best offer on the table at this present time for all RHG shareholders.
“As the largest shareholder, it is in our best interests to support the best price, so if in the event another party enters the field with an even better offer, we'd support that. The Pepper offer is currently the best, which is why we support it.”
Competition for the business heated up over the past month, but according to Mr Siegling this is a good thing for shareholders.
“Since the first offer from Resimac before there was any competition, the current offer has risen 30 per cent, which is $50 million more.”
