It is not often that foreign corporate raiders come hunting for big listed South African companies, but this is exactly what happened to Murray & Roberts this week. German investment group Aton, which already holds 33.1% of Murray & Roberts's shares, made it known that it intends to make a R15-a-share cash offer for all the ordinary shares in the engineering group, worth R4.7-billion. This sparked a 50% surge in the share price, taking it at one point this week to above R14. The offer price is a premium of 56.4% to the closing price on March 22. It values the group at R6.7-billion. Aton already has an irrevocable undertaking from fund manager Allan Gray, which owns 10.9% of Murray & Roberts, to accept the offer. If the deal with Allan Gray goes ahead it will take Aton's holding to 39.8% of voting rights. However, the JSE-listed group has constituted an independent board and told Aton where to get off. "The offer is opportunistic and made at a time of unprecedented share-price weakne...
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