LONDON (Alliance News) - Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd Thursday launched a voluntary public share-for-share offer for shares of ADC African Development AG through its wholly owned subsidiary Atlas Mara Beteiligungs AG
ADC is a Frankfurt-based, open market listed, Africa-focused, emerging pan-African banking group.
In March, Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd Monday said it agreed to acquire a majority stake in sub-Saharan African Bank ABC Holdings Ltd and ADC for up to USD265 million in cash and shares.
At the time, Atlas Mara, co-founded by ex-Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond, said it had reached conditional purchase agreements to acquire a majority of BancABC for USD0.82 per share or the Atlas Mara share equivalent. Atlas Mara also said it had agreed to make a voluntary public takeover offer for all outstanding ADC shares. Another agreement, under which Atlas has said it intends to make a mandatory public offer for all remaining outstanding shares of BancABC, subject to completion of the conditional purchase agreements.
Atlas Mara Thursday said it is offering five of its shares for four ADC shares. The offer corresponds to an implied price of EUR10.45 per ADC share, which is based on the average share price of Atlas Mara during the three months prior to March 31.
The offer also represents a premium of 16.7% to ADC's closing price on March 31 and a premium of 19.2% to ADC's one month volume-weighted average share price immediately prior to March 31.
Atlas Mara believes the proposed combination with ADC is consistent with its identified strategic objective of building a premier sub-Saharan financial services group.
"Particularly relevant are ADC's pan-African vision and execution expertise and ABC Holdings Limited's strong brand and multi-country banking platform, its well-respected management team and exciting growth prospects," Atlas Mara said in a statement.
Atlas Mara shares have been suspended until the transactions are complete.
By Anthony Tshibangu; anthonytshibangu@alliancenews.com; @AnthonyAllNews
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