Lavendon coerced by Loxam

Renter Loxam inflated its offer to buy cash at 3.11 euros per share on the British group Lavendon, specializing in the rental of lifting platforms. This represents an amount of € 531.27 million.

Well positioned to purchase Lavendon facing the Belgian TVH, Loxam improves for the 3rd time its offer of purchase which values the British company at 531.27 M € on January 17th 2017. The threshold of acceptance of the offer is being lowered to 50% plus the action instead of 75% previously, Loxam said in a statement. The premium represents approximately 92.4% of the closing price of € 1.60 per Lavendon share on November 21st, 2016, the last business day prior to the offering period, and 105.6% of the volume-weighted price of 131 , 3% per share for a 12-month period ended November 21.

This third offer would have resulted in a "contribution commitment" by M & G Investment Management, which holds an 18.6% stake in Lavendon, "unless an offer of Loxam is at least 4% higher", the statement said. On January 3rd, the Belgian TVH counter-attacked following the second offer of Loxam (551.8 M €) with an offer to 514.12 M €.