According to Street Talk by the AFR, it is expected to take until the end of June to complete due diligence - apparently because it took United Malt 2 weeks to open a data room! Not a good sign for management and the Board. I appreciate the sensivity of giving documents to a competitor but one would have thought there was some preparation while they were negotiating the price.
Lets not forget the history of this matter - as laid out by the Company in their announcement on 28 March - the first bid was $4.15 in December 2022:
The Indicative Proposal follows an unsolicited approach from Malteries Soufflet and its major shareholder, the InVivo Group (InVivo), to United Malt regarding a potential combination of United Malt and Malteries Soufflet. After a period of preliminary engagement, the United Malt Board determined that it was in the best interests of United Malt Shareholders to provide limited non-public information about United Malt to Malteries Soufflet and InVivo on a confidential and nonexclusive basis. Following the provision of this information, Malteries Soufflet submitted several confidential, non-binding and indicative proposals to acquire 100% of United Malt Shares: On 16 December 2022, for $4.15 in cash per share; on 6 February 2023, for $4.50 in cash per share; on 8 March 2023, for $4.90 in cash per share; and on 14 March 2023, Malteries Soufflet submitted the Indicative Proposal at the Indicative Proposal Price of $5.00 in cash per share.
Any decent advisor will tell you what to do with Takeover Defence preparation - here is something from Allens (a law firm - and the one who put the Process and Exclusivity document together - looks like for Malteries Soufflet as United Malt said they were advised by Gilbert and Tobin, and Macquarie on the financial side):
