Berjaya unit sweetens offer to acquire luxury car dealer

MANILA, Philippines - The local unit of Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corp. has sweetened and extended anew its offer to take over a British luxury car distributor.

In a regulatory filing, Beryaja Philippines Inc. said it acquired an additional 2.35 million shares of London-based car distributor H.R. Owen at 170 pence each.

“Following the additional purchase, [Berjaya Philippines] made an increased cash offer of 170 pence per share to all shareholders who accept the offer not later than Sept. 27,” the company said.

“The increased mandatory cash offer values the share capital of H.R. Owen on a fully diluted basis at approximately 43.2 million pounds (around P2.99 billion),” it added.

Under the terms of the previous tender offer, Berjaya Philippines wanted to buy out other stakeholders for 130 pence per share for a total transaction value of 32.5 million pounds (around P2.25 billion).

Berjaya Philippines said it aims to secure more than 50 percent of the voting shares in H.R. Owen. So far, the locally listed firm controls 9.56 million shares or 40.5 percent of the car distributor.

The first takeover offer attempt took place on July 29 to Aug. 19 but H.R. Owen management rejected the buyout, saying Berjaya Philippines undervalued the company’s shares. Berjaya Philippines then extended the tender offer to Sept. 2 and again to Sept. 16.