Kathmandu board urges shareholders to reject Briscoe's offer

Kathmandu board again urges shareholders to reject Briscoe's hostile takeover bid

By Fiona Rotherham

Sept. 3 (BusinessDesk) - The increasingly hostile takeover offer for Kathmandu has seen the outdoor clothing chain retailer’s board reiterate today that the offer from Briscoe Group is inadequate and urged shareholders to reject it.

The directors were responding to a statement yesterday from Briscoe, the retailer controlled by managing director Rod Duke, which warned it won’t lift its price to buy Kathmandu.

Briscoe said the original terms at an implied $1.80 a share offer in cash and scrip will remain and it won’t be extending the offer period beyond Sept. 17 unless the offer has sufficient acceptances to become unconditional. Briscoe is offering five of its own shares for every nine Kathmandu shares, plus 20 cents cash.

Kathmandu’s board said under the Financial Markets Conduct Act a company has to announce to the market any change in its listed securities when there’s acceptance of 1 percent or more of a takeover offer. As at Sept.2, Briscoe had not made such an announcement to the NZX and the Kathmandu directors restated shareholders should reject the offer, which they say doesn’t reflect the underlying value of the retail chain.

Briscoe built up a 19.99 per cent stake in the company before signalling the takeover bid at the end of June.

Kathmandu’s review of its head office structure, which could reduce top management employees in Australia and New Zealand by as much as 10 percent, is due to be completed at the end of the month.

Chief executive Xavier Simonet said the company was taking decisive action to address recent under-performance and was looking to all areas of the business.

Kathmandu’s shares are unchanged today at $1.65 while Briscoe shares slipped 1.1 percent to $2.80.

(BusinessDesk)

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