Archer consortium scraps bid for NZ's Abano Healthcare

Founded in 1999, Abano is New Zealand's first major publicly-listed investor and operator in the private healthcare market in New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia. It became the target of an unsolicited takeover bid by the consortium - which collectively owns 20% of Abano - in September after Archer obtained a five-month standstill agreement with shareholders.

Steamboat Director James Reeve said in a statement that the annual meeting confirmed concerns about the company's current governance and performance.

"It is disappointing to learn of a second downgrade in only eight months, and to have this information produced and downplayed without warning at the AGM," he said. "Especially given the significant scale of the downgrade - some 15-20% lower than broker consensus for 2014 fiscal year when the consortium first approached Abano on July 20, 2013."

Reeve added that there were serious concerns about the company's governance, reinforced by the timing and poor quality of the information presented to shareholders.

The consortium - which will now unwind the exclusivity deed it entered into on September 16 - had proposed to pay NZ$7.80 per share on November 19, an increase on the previous offer of NZ$6.97-7.14 and a 40% premium to pre-bid trading in July.

However, Abano Healthcare says that the indicative and conditional price of NZ$7.80 was materially below the NZ$8.30-10.05 range - based on a 100% transaction - arrived at by Grant Samuel in independent valuation report commissioned by Abano.

Abano also accused the consortium's statement as having a number of inaccurate and misleading passages. It said it was pleased the consortium had withdrawn proposal, which had been "the cause of significant distraction and cost" for the company.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Healthcare
• healthcare
• Australia
• Archer Capital
• buyout