Masthead Portfolios has extended its partial takeover offer for Abano Healthcare Group after Abano's directors unanimously recommended shareholders reject the bid.
An independent report by Ferrier Hodgson, made public yesterday, identified a value range of $5 to $5.80 for Abano shares with a mid point of $5.40, forfull ownership of the company.
Masthead, the investment company of Christchurch's Stewart family, launched a $3.85 a share offer on October 10 to lift its stake in Abano from 19.9 per cent to 51 per cent.
In a letter to shareholders yesterday, Abano chairwoman Alison Paterson said the Abano board believed the Masthead offer had no merits and was entirely inadequate.
In the independent report, Ferrier Hodgson said it believed Abano was poised for continued significant growth.
While Masthead had not undertaken due diligence on Abano, other qualified parties had been allowed access to due diligence information to evaluate if they would make an offer.
Paterson said due diligence agreements had been signed with two parties and it was fair to say other parties were interested. All discussions were subject to confidentiality agreements.
After the release of yesterday's target company statement, Abano's shares increased as much as 25c at one point to a seven-year high of $4.60. They closed at $4.50 yesterday.
Masthead said it would extend the closing date on its offer by a further 20 days to November 29.
Masthead said it intended using the extra time to closely analyse and assess the Abano target company statement.
If its Abano offer failed it was likely to look for other opportunities in the health sector.
