Takeover target Comvita is a mere shadow of its former self.
Comvita, once one of the sharemarket’s highest-priced stocks, has become a takeover target at just 80c a share.
The mānuka honey exporter, boosted by the same unofficial Chinese “daigou” trade that once gripped another former high flyer – a2 Milk – hit a peak of $11.01 a share in June 2016 but bottomed out this year at just 48c.
The entire industry has been dogged by oversupply and aggressive discounting and Comvita’s last result showed it sank deeper into the red with a loss of $104.8 million from $77.4m a year earlier.
The stock has traded at about 75c after the launch of a scheme of arrangement for the company at 80c/share, from a company called Florenz, valuing Comvita at $56m.
Added to the mix is a possible challenge to the scheme from founder and 3.36% shareholder Alan Bougen, who is leading a group to form a competing bid.
He faces stiff opposition.
The scheme is subject to various approvals but has the support of the board.
China Resources Enterprise and Li Wang, Comvita’s two largest shareholders who together own 18.3%, support the transaction.
And Comvita – a global market leader in the mānuka honey trade – said certain institutional shareholders had advised that they support the Florenz offer.
At the end of its last financial year, Comvita reached an agreement with its banking syndicate on revised covenants.
In its latest annual report, Comvita said it was clear from discussions with advisers and banks that a longer-term recapitalisation solution was required.
Florenz is a unit of Christchurch-based Masthead – the investment vehicle of the Stewart family. Mark Stewart’s wealth was estimated at $1 billion in the 2025 NBR Rich List.
Florenz’s portfolio includes Wedderspoon Organic – North America’s leading seller of mānuka honey products.
A scheme of arrangement meeting for the Florenz offer is scheduled for November 14.
After some prompting from Comvita, Bougen made clear his intentions for the company he founded.
“I am leading a group of shareholders and other interested parties who are working together with the common purpose of opposing the proposed takeover of Comvita by scheme of arrangement and to formulate and propose an alternative funding proposal that we believe will be superior to the Florenz bid,” he said.
“At this stage, we are in the process of formalising our syndicate and attempting to confirm commitments from interested parties that would enable us to put a credible proposal to Comvita.”
The company’s annual report said 2025 was a “deeply challenging” year.
Structural pressure in the mānuka honey sector intensified, operating conditions worsened in several export markets and the company faced the compounded impacts of trading underperformance, financial constraints and legacy issues.
“Oversupply, economic uncertainty and demand fluctuations are reshaping the industry, with the premium positioning under attack,” CEO Karl Gradon said.
“Global category growth remains modest at 1 to 3% per annum,” Gradon said.
“It has largely been survival mode for many players,” he said.
Comvita, founded in 1974, employs more than 400 people globally.
It has operations in Australia, China, North America, Southeast Asia, Europe and New Zealand.
The recent collapses of US car parts maker First Brands and auto dealership Tricolor may be a warning of much bigger financial problems to come and the Bank of England plans a more detailed probe, the bank’s governor Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday.
News agency Reuters reported Bailey as telling lawmakers that there were parallels with the early stages of the Global Financial Crisis and that the central bank planned to run a “stress test” with the private equity and credit industry.
“Are these cases idiosyncratic or are they what are called ‘the canary in the coal mine’? In other words, are they telling us something more fundamental ... ? I think that is still a very open question,” Bailey told the House of Lords’ financial services regulation committee.
Former NZX-listed chemicals handling specialist DGL remains suspended on the ASX, first for being late in filing its annual report and then over issues with a tagged auditor’s report.
The stock was suspended on October 1. When it filed its report, the stock remained suspended because of a “disclaimer of opinion” tag on its auditor’s report over the treatment of inventory.
The auditor’s report said: “Our risk assessment substantially changed throughout the audit process as a result of failures identified in the system of internal control and oversight processes, which we have concluded are pervasive to the financial report of the group.”
DGL said it had completed 30 business and asset acquisitions in the last five years and was undertaking a “significant business transformation programme”.
The DGL board had confidence in the financial information presented in the annual report and in the company’s underlying performance, it said.
DGL delisted from the NZX in June 2022 after a public furore over inflammatory comments made by founder and CEO Simon Henry about My Food Bag founder Nadia Lim.
Infratil’s move to buy TECT Holdings’ (TECT is formerly the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust) 4.92% shareholding in Contact Energy is a solid move, investment firm Forsyth Barr says.
The purchase price of $437.7m, or $8.95 per share, will be funded through a combination of $218.8m in existing debt capacity and the issuance of $218.8m of new Infratil shares to TECT at $12.43 per share.
Infratil had earlier completed the sale of its 51% stake in Manawa Energy to Contact in July 2025, in return for approximately $186m in cash and its shareholding in Contact.
“We think this is a solid move for Infratil and is consistent with its strategy for cashflow generators to be 30%–50% of its portfolio,“ Forsyth Barr said.
“While minority stakes in listed vehicles aren’t a typical long-term Infratil [IFT] asset, we believe Contact ticks a lot of boxes for IFT currently.
“It is a cash-generative, New Zealand-based asset nearing a meaningful scale in the portfolio and has valuation upside.
“This transaction is also the first small step by IFT to ensure its portfolio remains balanced following [data centre] CDC’s strong performance,” it said.
Viridian’s bid for Metro Performance Glass has failed because of the Commerce Commission’s concerns about effects on competition.
The commission said it had unresolved issues on the transaction’s potential effect on competition as both are involved in the processing and installation of glass across New Zealand, with plants in both Auckland and Christchurch.
However, the commission had not reached a final decision on these issues at the time of Viridian’s withdrawal.
“With the completion of the recapitalisation, debt forgiveness and new three-year banking package and Viridian’s application now out of the way, we can focus on the continued turnaround and dedicate all our focus to the business performance and growing shareholder value,” Metroglass said.