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Heavyweight South Korean business conglomerate Hanwha Group is taking another swing at Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) half a year after its last takeover play fell through, according to a term sheet shared by Jarden on Monday.
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Six months ago, the South Korean giant made three non-binding offers to the Henderson shipbuilder that were knocked back – and now it’s coming in for another swing.
This time, the offer is for $4.45 a share, which would be a 16.2% premium on last close.
Hanwha is very specific in its offering’s goals too: It wants “up to 9.9%” of the company (which would be 41.2 million shares). The conglomerate has “no intention of submitting a chance of control proposal or making a takeover bid.”
The reason – any more would see the Foreign Investment Review Board need to get involved for approval; Hanwha doesn’t want to wade through that red tape.
Interestingly, The West Australian is already suggesting that “sellers for the 9.9% stake have been secured,” which means things may be a formality from here.
Should that prove true, FIRB may soon step in to take a look, 10% bought or no.
The buy-up deal would be split between Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Aerospace, with ₩202.7 billion from the former; ₩64.2 billion the latter. This would then be funnelled through an Australian subsidiary’s paid-in capital increase.
With the subsidiary, HAA, adding in some further cash reserves, the total investment from Hanwha would tally as much as A$182 million through a tender offer.
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All this comes a week after Austal launched a $220 million equity raise, with the company looking to generate cash for its ballooning U.S. projects pipeline.
Of particular interest globally is Austal’s ongoing warships and service vessels contract with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coastguard; the Aussie shipbuilder inked that deal as far back as 15 years ago and has happily re-upped it several times.
Also relevant is the Trump and AUKUS discussions unfolding in the U.S. through these last weeks. For Austal, a split would have an impact – but it wouldn’t be more than a bump, chief executive Paddy Gregg says.
“We’ve got a great order book, we’ve got some great contacts… it’s our responsibility to make sure we execute those,” he told The West on that exact topic last week.
Austal last traded at $4.11 a share; a 7.44% jump fuelled by this Hanwha approach.
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