UNILEVER (Ireland) will receive a further rebuff from Lyons Irish Holdings today.
Mr John Condon, partner of KPMG Corporate Finance, adviser to Lyons, told The Irish Times that a further document will be circulated to the Lyons shareholder this morning. Although the contents have not been released, the rejection advice will be unequivocal.
It will note that the shareholders have already signalled a resounding rejection as only 0.26 per cent indicated their approval. The remaining 24.74 per cent rejected it.
The circular will say that the Lyons board is determined the minority shareholders will get fair value. It will express disappointment that Unilever did not react positively by raising its offer.
Following the purchase of Allied Domecq's holding in Lyons, Unilever has a 75 per cent interest in the tea firm. Unilever appointed two nominees to the Lyons board, including Mr Jim Rice, Unilever's chief executive, last week. The two directors, however, do not take part in the board meetings to discuss the Unilever offer.
Unilever has made the minority shareholders the same offer, 323.3p per share, as it paid Allied Domecq.
This is being stoutly resisted by Lyons. Following the poor response, Unilever stressed that it "continues to believe that the offer is fair and reasonable and has extended it until further notice".
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, adviser to Unilever, on Friday stated that a Financial Times article "attributes statements inaccurately to a spokesman at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell". Those statements indicated that the offer from Unilever would not be raised and had it been allowed to stand, then Unilever would not have been able to raise the bid. The clarifying statement from Deutsche Morgan Grenfell leaves the door open for the offer to be increased.
Lyons has 1,170 minority shareholders. A number of them are institutions and they have been vocally opposed to the deal.
Unilever has to get acceptances from 80 per cent of the minority shareholders by value and 75 per cent by numbers.
It would therefore have to receive acceptances from over 870 individual shareholders before Unilever could compulsorily acquire the outstanding shares.
