White knight rides to Sovereign’s rescue
Capitalworks’s R907m offer may end Country Bird’s hostile bid
The board of Sovereign Foods stunned market watchers on Thursday with the announcement that it had found a white knight to fund a R12-a-share offer for all the company and rescue it from a hostile bid by Country Bird Holdings (CBH). The R907m offer, which is funded by little-known private equity firm Capitalworks, is a hefty 33% premium on the R9 offer made by CBH in 2016. The structure and conditions of the deal mean, however, that its success is dependent on the backing of CBH, which is the single-largest shareholder with 34.5% of Sovereign. Capitalworks said it had received support from shareholders holding more than 50.8% of the company. Sovereign CEO Chris Coombes, who fought hard against CBH’s bid for control, said on Thursday that the company was pleased that shareholders had held out for "another, significantly higher, offer".On Thursday afternoon, Marthinus Stander, the CEO of CBH, said they had not decided how to respond to the offer. "We’ve only seen the deal on Sens toda...
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