Boral has succumbed to a hardball takeover bid resulting in new control of Australia’s largest building materials maker.
The company’s independent directors have done an about-face in response to the Seven Group Holding’s (SGH) initial takeover bid that saw its stake in Boral rise up to 78.8% from 71.6%.
This news comes in the wake of the 27 February announcement of the $2.1 billion buyout of cement group Adbri by Irish company CRH, with the AFR predicting at the time “the rush of local building products companies set to disappear from the ASX”.
In a statement on 19 February, Boral advised shareholders to ‘take no action’ in response to the off-market takeover bid and a month later, told investors to reject the offer. At the time, Boral said the company’s outlook was robust with its turnaround strategy ahead of schedule and only part-way complete.
Boral’s Bid Response Committee said the offer undervalued Boral, however, recent developments including the increase 7.2% increase in stake, saw Seven’s takeover bid accepted.
In a statement last Friday, Boral said: “In its Bidder’s Statement, SGH outlined its intentions for Boral after the SGH Offer, including SGH’s intention to re-constitute the Board of Boral with a majority of SGH nominees, and only retain sufficient independent directors to satisfy ASX Listing Rule requirements. SGH also outlined … the intention to seek to de-list Boral from the ASX … SGH will have the ability to exert significantly greater control with respect to governance, strategy, day to day operations, management and capital allocation of the Boral business.”
At the end of January, Boral was awarded the road pavement project for the Coffs Harbour Bypass.
Image: Temporary concrete batching plant for Coffs Harbour Bypass. Source: TfNSW.
About the author
Desi Corbett
Desi is the Editor of Concrete in Australia and at the helm of our magazine for 8 years. She was behind the Institute's weekly news bulletins from 2016-2021 and is now writing our focused news items. Desi has been an engineering news and features journalist/editor across all disciplines since 2013 - part of a 30-year career writing for a wide range of industries.