The AA - Albert Bridge seeking "fellow shareholders" to reject the Private Equity bid of 35p
All,
This morning’s press (Times and Telegraph) reports that Albert Bridge, a 20% shareholder in the AA, are asking fellow shareholders to block the takeover stating that the offer is derisory and fundamentally undervalues the equity. Warburg Pincus and Towerbrook have not yet released the Scheme documents, but require 75% vote in favour, and with Albert Bridge having 19.99% requires only a further 5% to block. The second largest shareholder, Davidson Kempner has already given undertakings to back the deal, so all eyes will turn o Cleveland Capital (Gary Klesch vehicle) who own c.10%).
We fully expect a deal will be completed and the B notes will be refinanced in the short term. However, this attempt by Albert Bridge is likely to cause some delay to the process. Given the share price is currently 33p, the market is not assigning a high probability to the possibility of a takeover price increase.
Happy to discuss.
Tomás
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