(Bloomberg) — Louis Dreyfus Co. raised its offer for Namoi Cotton Ltd. after acquiring nearly half of the Australian company’s shares, outbidding Olam Agri Holdings Ltd., which is still waiting for regulatory approval.
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LDC increased its bid to A$0.77 ($0.53) a share and said it now owned 47.66% of Namoi, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday. The offer, which values the cotton processor at A$158 million, is scheduled to close on Oct. 9. Samuel Terry Asset Management, Namoi’s biggest shareholder, had accepted its offer, Dreyfus said.
Namoi shares rose as much as 8.8% to A$0.7725 at 12:53 p.m. in Sydney. The stock has rallied 61% this year.
The rival crop traders have been jostling to buy Namoi since January to gain a bigger foothold in Australia, the world’s sixth-largest cotton producer. Dreyfus’s most recent offer has set it up to close the deal, and made an Olam takeover substantially less likely.
Olam’s most recent bid of A$0.75 a share was recommended by Namoi’s independent directors and major shareholders last month, but is still conditional on pending approval from Australia’s regulatory watchdog, which has raised competition concerns. It also requires support from more than half the company’s shareholders, which is likely to pose a challenge given Dreyfus now controls almost half of Namoi.
Olam, Dreyfus and Samuel Terry all declined to comment, while Namoi didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
–With assistance from Harry Brumpton.
(Updates with share price and additional details from second paragraph. An earlier version corrected the currencies of the offers to Australian cents.)
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