THE board of Lyons Irish Holdings has accused 75 per cent shareholder Unilever of ignoring the minority shareholders in Unilever's response to the overwhelming rejection of its offer to buy out the minority shareholders.
Last week, Unilever got acceptances of just 0.26 per cent for its 323.3p per share offer from the minority shareholders.
"Unilever Ireland responded to this resounding rejection by offering nothing new. The board was surprised at this response to the very strong message conveyed by shareholders in the low level of acceptances. It would seem that Unilever is choosing to ignore you," Lyons chairman, Mr Pierce Butler, states in his latest letter to shareholders.
Mr Butler said Unilever had presented a weak response to the Lyons board's arguments in favour of a higher offer. He said Unilever had failed to offer a justification for its offer price "which is significantly out of line with comparable market ratings".
The Lyons chairman emphasised that the payment of a 7.8p interim dividend, since Unilever acquired the Allied Domecq 75 per cent stake, was in line with interim dividends paid in the past and "was not a special once off dividend".
Lyons repeated that the Unilever offer failed to address the overall increase in stock market values since Unilever acquired the Allied Domecq stake last January.
Commenting on Unilever's dismissal of the relevance of other minority buyouts, Mr Butler said: "All of these transactions involved a significant premium over the last dealt price prior to the offer."
