Abrdn Property Share News (API)

LONDON (Alliance News) - API Group Thursday said it has not held any discussions with Cedar 2015 Ltd, a subsidiary of Steel Partners Holdings LP, after Cedar said it had made a cash takeover offer for API and received a large portion of acceptances from API shareholders.

Cedar 2015 Ltd made a cash offer of 60.0 pence per API share to acquire the entire share capital of the company that Steel Holdings does not already own.

Steel Holdings currently holds a 32.3% stake in API, and is the company's largest shareholder.

"The board of directors of API would like to confirm that there have been no discussions to date relating to the offer between Cedar and the API board. The API board will carefully consider its position and a further announcement will be made in due course," said the company.

API has recommended that its shareholders take no action until further there are further developments.

in Its separate statement, Cedar said its offer valued API at about GBP46 million and represents a 27.7% premium to the closing share price on Wednesday, a 25.9% premium to the average closing price over the last month and a 22.6% premium to the average closing price over the last three months.

Terry Gibson, chairman of Cedar, has written an open letter to API shareholders which said it was giving them the opportunity to "sell their shares in what has generally been an illiquid investment at a significant premium to the current share price."

Gibson claimed that Wynnefield Partners Small Cap Value LP has formally accepted its offer for 10.9 million shares, which represents a 14.2% interest in API. It has also recieved non-binding acceptances from two other shareholders linked to Wynnefield, which represents an additional 15.5% stake in API.

Cedar said it "has received irrevocable undertakings and letters of intent to accept the offer in respect of API Shares which, together with the API Shares in which the Steel Group is interested, represent in aggregate, approximately 62% of the existing issued shares capital of API."

Cedar needs to gain a 75% acceptance from API shareholders for its offer to go through.

Cedar confirmed that no discussions have been held with API, but said it intends to hold detailed talks now it has made its cash offer.

API shares closed up 26.5% at 59.45 pence per share on Thursday.

By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance

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