Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) has moved closer to taking over Norway’s Gram Car Carriers (GCC), with the largest shareholders agreeing to the deal.
The Swiss-based liner giant officially launched a voluntary cash offer of NOK263.69 per share via its subsidiary SAS Shipping Agencies Services earlier this week. The deal values Gram at about $700m.
F. Laeisz, AL Maritime, Glenrinnes Farms, HM Gram Investment, and HM Gram Enterprises, which in aggregate hold close to 55% of the shares, have accepted the offer, and the remaining shareholders have until June 26 to decide whether to sell at a premium of 24.1% to GCC’s stock price on April 23, when the initial takeover scheme was announced.
MSC is targeting 90% or more of Gram shares to carry out a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares, thus avoiding a mandatory offer. In total, investors would get NOK272.69 per share if counting in the Q1 dividend paid in May this year. If the deal has not been reached by the June deadline, SAS said it could extend the offer by August 5.
In its independent review of the offer, Nordic investment bank ABG Sundal Collier said the price was “fair from a financial point of view,” adding that shareholders should “carefully study” the offer and draw their own conclusions, as well as seek advice on the tax consequences and other effects of tendering their shares.
Gram is the world’s third-largest car carrier tonnage provider, with currently 17 owned vessels in one of the shipping’s hottest sectors in recent years, which has also attracted other global liners such as CMA CGM and HMM.
