Restaurant Brands recommends offer

AUCKLAND: Finaccess Capital’s $881.5 million bid for threequarters of Restaurant Brands is looking like becoming a done deal after Mexican asset management company won the board’s approval.

Restaurant Brands’ independent directors said they had elected to accept the $9.45 per share offer and the board unanimously recommended shareholders do likewise, unless a better offer emerged.

Director Stephen Copulos has already agreed to sell his 8.6% stake to Finaccess.

Finaccess has offered to buy up to 75% of the fast food operator at a 24% premium to the $7.60 price before the bid.

The offer also trumps the $8.15$8.92 range adviser Grant Samuel calculated. The Mexican firm lodged its offer document yesterday.

The offer closes on March 12 and acceptances above 75% may be scaled, depending on the uptake.

‘‘Our partial takeover offer allows shareholders to realise a significant premium for some or all (subject to scaling) of their investment in Restaurant Brands, while also providing them an opportunity to continue participating in the business,’’ Finaccess chief executive Josa Paras Gutiarrez said.

‘‘We are firmly focused on creating value for all Restaurant Brands shareholders over the long term.’’

As to the reason for taking 75%, Mr Gutiarrez, through a local spokesman, said: ‘‘By remaining a public company, Restaurant Brands will have access to capital to fund future growth while also providing existing shareholders an opportunity to continue participating in the business in the long term’’.

One financial market source said takeover bids normally involved some push and shove around the ranges put forward by the likes of advisory firms such as Grant Samuel.

‘‘It’s a bit of a lay down misere, I would have thought, in terms of pricing,’’ he said.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said it was an attractive offer price, a view shared by many in the financial markets.

‘‘A $9.45 a share offer price is solid, in any way, shape or form,’’ he said.

‘‘Restaurant Brands has been a great company to own. We have been big supporters of it in recent years and it’s been a good place to be,’’ he said.

The bid for Restaurant Brands is one of two big takeover bids in the market at the moment, the other being competing bids for Trade Me from UK private equity outfit APAX Partners and US private equity company Hellman & Friedman.

The Grant Samuel report valued Restaurant Brands at between $1.02 billion and $1.11 billion, including a premium for 100% control.

It noted that because the deal was a partial takeover, shareholders could only be certain of selling 75% of their shares.

Restaurant Brands said yesterday it would build more than 60 Taco Bell restaurants in New Zealand and New South Wales between 2019 and 2024.

The shares last traded at $8.52, up 23c from Monday’s close. — Additional reporting BusinessDesk