UK's H.R. Owen rejects Berjaya Philippines offer as 'inadequate'

 H.R. Owen Plc, the UK-based luxury car dealer, on Thursday urged shareholders to ignore the unsolicited takeover offer from listed Berjaya Philippines saying the offer is “unacceptable” and “inadequate.”
 
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, H.R. Owen noted the  “... offer of 130 pence per HR Owen share represents only a 7.4 percent premium to the closing mid-market price of the company's shares on 16 July, the last trading day prior to Berjaya's announcement.
 
“Therefore, the board strongly recommends that shareholders take no action in respect of this unsolicited and unacceptable offer from Berjaya,” it added.
 
A unit of Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corp., Berjaya Philippines on Wednesday posted a notice on the London Stock Exchange revealing its intent to make a public offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of H.R. Owen.
 
Berjaya Philippines offered to pay H.R. Owen shareholders 130 pence in cash for each share. “The offer values the share capital of the company (H.R. Owen) on a fully diluted basis at approximately ? 32.5 million,” the Philippine company said.
 
“The funding for the acquisition of shares and the offer will be from the issuer’s internal funds and partly from bank loan. The issuer is confident that the loan can be repaid from the income of the issuer
and will not affect its operations,” it added.
 
Last month, Berjaya Philippines bought a 29.81-percent stake in H.R. Owen for ?8.3 million (P540 million).
 
Registered in England and Wales, H.R. Owen operates as a franchised motor dealer in the United Kingdom selling new and used cars as well as aftersales service that include parts and accessories and body repair.
 
Founded in 1932, the car dealer operates retail outlets in London, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, and Manchester, which include 14 sales franchises and 13 aftersales franchises for Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, and Rolls Royce.
 
Its aftersales covers franchises for Audi, BMW, Lotus, and MINI.
 
H.R. Owen is Berjaya Philippines’ second venture into car dealership. The company is currently the sole distributor of Mazda vehicles, parts and accessories in the Philippines.