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- Woolworths Group (WOW) swoops on retail-competitor Wesfarmers (WES) takeover offer for Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries (API)
- Woolies is offering to buy API, the owner of Priceline pharmacies, for roughly $872 million, or $1.75 per share, a premium to Wesfarmers bid of $1.55 per share
- Under the WOW offer, API also has the option of maintaining a minority stake in its own business with the retail giant offering to buy a minimum of 50.1 per cent
- API has labelled Woolworths offer as being superior to the Coles owners bid and API’s shares have soared following the new takeover offer announcement
- Shares in API are up 15.9 per cent at $1.73 each, WOW securities slipped 0.33 per cent to $39.71 per share, while Wesfarmers was up 0.4 per cent at $57.27 each
Woolworths Group (WOW) has swooped on retail-competitor Wesfarmers (WES) takeover offer for Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries (API).
Woolies is offering to buy API — which owns the Priceline and Soul Pattinson pharmacies — for roughly $872 million, or $1.75 per share, less the cash amount of any fully franked dividends.
The supermarket giant’s offer is a premium to the Wesfarmers bid to buy the pharmacy group for $1.55 per share.
Additionally, under the WOW offer, API also has the option of maintaining a minority stake in its own business, with Woolies offering to buy a minimum of 50.1 per cent of the company.
The pharmacy group appears keen on the new offer, with the board of API stating Woolworth’s bid could “be more favourable to API shareholders as a whole than the Wesfarmers Scheme”.
API will now allow WOW to carry out the necessary due diligence before a binding offer can be presented.
In the meantime, API shareholders have enjoyed a more than 15 per cent spike in the share price after the bidding war emerged.
API securities were trading up 15.9 per cent at $1.73 each at 9:35 am AEDT. Woolworths securities slipped 0.33 per cent to trade at $39.71 per share, while Wesfarmers was up 0.4 per cent at $57.27 each.
