Capital Markets Authority has approved a cash offer by Rubis Énergie SAS’ to buy all the issued ordinary shares of fuel seller Kenol Kobil.
In this deal, the France-based petroleum firm acquire 75 per cent of Kenol Kobil. Rubis owns a 25 per cent stake in the listed oil marketer or about 367,793,124 shares. Outstanding shares are 1,471,761,200. Together with others, it controls 51.83 of Kenol Kobil.
Other known shareholders are American firm UM Holdings, which controls 40.36 per cent stake, while Energy Resource Capital has 5.9 per cent stake. The shares on offer will be bought at Sh23 each.
The price represents a 53. 4 per cent premium to the volume weighted average price at which Kenol Kobil Plc shares traded over the 30 trading days preceding the issuance of the notice of intention to take-over by Rubis Énergie SAS in October 2018.
Further, it’s higher than the prices at which Kenol Kobil Plc shares have traded since then. As at 1:30pm on Friday, the shares were trading at Sh20.75 increase from Sh19.20 reported on Thursday. Other regulators who have approved the cash offer include Competition Authority of Kenya and the Comesa Competition Commission.
Kenol Kobil Board of Directors have considered the offer and recommended that shareholders accept it. The offer documents will be posted to Kenol Kobil shareholders on January 14 and will close on February 18, 2019.
In a press statement released on Friday, Rubis expressed confidence that the cash offer will be accepted by the shareholders.
If successful, the move is likely to see Kenol Kobil delisted from Nairobi Securities Exchange.
A statement released in October last year by Rubis revealed that it will finance the takeover valued at $353 million (Sh35.3 billion) through the group’s cash and or from existing credit facilities.
The takeover attempt of a listed firm is the second in the last one year fone by an American miller Seaboard Corporation to delist Unga Group via a takeover offer.
This hit a snug after minority shareholders held onto their shares.
Apart from the two, listed NIC bank is in talks to merge with Privately owned Commercial Bank of Africa to create one of the largest financial services groups in the region.
Rubis is currently a market leader in France, Switzerland, Bermuda, Jamaica, Madagascar, Morocco and Senegal.