2023-08-10 06:34:02
Zurich (awp) – Reacting to the refusal of their request to postpone the general meeting of GAM, the shareholders opposed to the takeover offer launched by the British Liontrust withdrew their proposals that they were going to submit during this meeting. They will ask for a new general meeting to be held as soon as the result of the takeover bid is known.
“GAM’s Board of Directors continues to disregard shareholders rather than act in the best interests of the company. They have constantly changed dates and deadlines to avoid being held accountable by shareholders, knowing from the start that Liontrust’s bid has been failing,” Bruellan chief executive Antoine Spillmann said in a statement released Thursday.
Together with Newgame, Bruellan owns 9.6% of GAM. At the beginning of August, the group of dissident investors had requested the postponement of the extraordinary general meeting from August 18 to August 31, in order to allow shareholders to find out the result of the takeover bid launched by the London fund managers on GAM. .
Referring to data from SIX SIS, Switzerland’s central securities depository, Newgame and Bruellan say only 51.6 million shares of the struggling Zurich asset manager were tendered to Liontrust’s bid, or just 32.3 % of issued share capital, “despite three extensions of the public tender offer period” which runs until August 23. This percentage is “well below the success threshold of 66.7%”, hammered the shareholders.
Offer and counter-offer
GAM is at the center of a standoff for its acquisition. Liontrust launched a takeover bid (OPA) in early May, several times extended, which runs until August 23. The UK fund manager is offering 0.0589 treasury ordinary shares with a nominal value of one penny for each registered target. The offer values the takeover target at 84 million Swiss francs. Completion of the transaction is expected in the last quarter.
In mid-July, the dissident group of investors Newgame and Bruellan decided to launch a partial counter offer for GAM. The takeover bid concerns a maximum of 28 million shares with a par value of 5 centimes per unit. The offer price for each GAM share is expected to be 55 cents in cash, representing a premium of 31.9% over the stock’s last closing price on July 17 and 29.1% over the offer. from Liontrust. The transaction, which involves approximately 17.5% of the target’s issued share capital, will run from September 1 to 28 and may be extended.
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