Guanabara Holdings BV, the Dutch company set up to attempt a takeover of EcoSecurities Group, raised its bid for the emissions-trading firm by 17 per cent after an initial offer won limited support from shareholders.
The cash offer was increased to 90 pence a share from 77 pence, Guanabara said in a statement today. The final offer will remain open until September 18th. It values the Dublin-based firm at about £106 million.
Shareholders representing 25.53 per cent of EcoSecurities have now pledged to accept the takeover offer, compared with the 12.3 per cent that accepted the original bid, according to the statement.
Guanabara said it needs the backing of 50 per cent of investors to conclude the deal. EcoSecurities jumped 6.7 per cent to 88 pence as of 8.05am in London.
Guanabara’s bid includes funding from BTG Investments LP, led by Andre Esteves, former head of fixed income, currencies and commodities at Zurich-based UBS AG. Pedro Moura Costa, chairman of Guanabara, is a co-founder of EcoSecurities and served as president until resigning on April 23rd.
EcoSecurities, manager of the largest number of emission projects overseen by the United Nations, is up 11 per cent since Guanabara announced its offer on July 16th and has almost tripled this year as three bidders expressed interest in a takeover.
EcoSecurities creates and trades Certified Emission Reduction credits, or CERs, in the UN’S clean development mechanism, the world’s second-largest carbon market.
The emissions trading company described the original, 77 pence-a-share offer as “wholly inadequate.” More than 19 per cent of EcoSecurities shareholders, including Credit Suisse Group AG.
Bloomberg