Yahoo Finance US Spice Maker Sweetens Mr Kipling Offer
Schwartz spice owner McCormick & Co has heated up its offer for Mr Kipling maker Premier Foods (LSE: PFD.L - news) with a third approach for the company.
The latest proposal of 65p per share is an increase on previously rejected offers of 52p and 60p which Premier (NasdaqGS: PINC - news) had said "significantly undervalued" the business – whose brands also include Bisto, Homepride, Oxo and Sharwood's.
In another twist to the takeover saga, Premier had revealed last week that Japanese noodle giant Nissin Foods had taken a 17% stake in the business at 63p per share, as part of an international cooperation deal.
McCormick's latest offer values Premier's shares at £537m.
It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) said that including debt and future pension liabilities the proposal represented an enterprise value of £1.5bn. Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) rose 7%.
The approach values the stock at about double its closing price on 23 March when the initial proposals were first made public.
McCormick said its latest sweetened proposal "should be well received by Premier Foods' shareholders, employees, pensioners, creditors, and other stakeholders".
Analysts at Shore Capital said it was a "good compromise price".
A spokeswoman for Premier Foods said it had no immediate comment.
Premier said last week that it would "give careful consideration" to an improved offer that better reflected its assessment of the company's long-term value.
