By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agriculture editor
Guinness Peat Group's $57 million takeover bid for major apple exporter Enza has begun in earnest.
The Sir Ron Brierley investment vehicle, which already holds 20 per cent of the $600 million former monopoly marketer, sent a $1.20 a share offer to all Enza's 1065 or so
grower shareholders on Friday.
Fellow corporate investor FR Partners has already agreed to sell its 20 per cent stake to GPG if the bid reaches a 50 per cent threshold.
Enza's independent directors, headed by deputy chairman Brian D'Ath, have commissioned a report on the offer's merits by corporate restructurers and consultants Ferrier Hodgson. The report is expected in growers' hands today.
In a covering letter to shareholders with Friday's offer, GPG director Tony Gibbs said the company believed Enza was best served by having a committed shareholder.
"GPG has a long-term strategic vision for Enza which includes better returns for growers through business efficiencies."
The offer price was 114 per cent higher than Enza's share price before the marketers' February annual meeting, Gibbs said.
GPG and FR got their stakes in Enza in 2000 after meeting the grower qualification, which applied at that time for shareholders, by leasing orchards. The move prompted the deregulation of Enza, formerly the Apple and Pear Marketing Board.
Gibbs was deposed as Enza chairman last August by FR director Bill Birnie and failed to regain the role at February's annual meeting.
After the takeover was announced last month, Birnie said that following the annual meeting it was clear to all other shareholders that GPG and FR had different approaches to the Enza business.
"It is not in the best interest of the company, its staff or its suppliers that there are two hands on the tiller," he said. "We have reluctantly concluded that the best course for all parties is to accept the GPG offer."
Gibbs said at the time GPG was not intent on owning 100 per cent of Enza but had bid for all the shares "in fairness to everybody".
GPG's offer values Enza at around $72 million. In its latest annual report, the company's net shareholder value was $77 million, and its gross operating revenue $640 million.
