PERTH (miningweekly.com) – South Africa-focused coal miner Universal Coal has maintained its advice that shareholders not take any action in regards to a takeover bid from fellow-listed TerraCom, despite the suitor’s reports that its offer had garnered significant attention.
TerraCom earlier this week reported that acceptances to date, when aggregated with TerraCom’s existing interest in Universal, gave the company an over-51% voting right to Universal shares.
Universal on Thursday said that the bid committee was preparing to launch legal proceedings against the takeover bid, claiming the offer contravened certain principles of the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, and was working with Deloitte Corporate Finance to prepare an independent expert report on the fairness and reasonableness of the unsolicited bid.
The coal miner has, meanwhile, urged shareholders not to take any action around the bid.
TerraCom last week officially launched its 33.5c-a-share offer for each Universal share held, consisting of 10c in cash and 0.6026 new TerraCom shares.