The acquisition of Sovereign Foods would not be a financial burden for Country Bird Holdings (CBH), CEO Marthinus Stander said in response to charges by Sovereign that his company was using the acquisition to get out of financial difficulty. Stander said CBH not only had sufficient funds for the purchase of Sovereign, but had the resources to fund the merged entity’s growth plans. Far from planning to rationalise the merged business, "CBH considers it likely that jobs will be created by the future growth of the combined entity", said Stander. CBH, which owned 34.1% of Sovereign, was blocked from acquiring a controlling share by the Takeover Regulation Panel. In November, the panel ruled that CBH’s offer had lapsed and it had to wait 12 months to make another offer. Before the offer lapsed, CBH applied to the Competition Commission for approval of the deal. The commission gave its approval in November. Within weeks Sovereign announced it was taking that decision on review. In its app...
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