stella sell off almost finalised

Stella sell off almost finalised: report
Thursday, January 31, 2008





The sell off of a substantial stake in Stella by MFS could occur as soon as today or tomorrow, according to a report in a local newspaper.

It is believed that MFS Limited is in advanced negotiations and is ready to settle on a figure, according to reports from the Australian Financial Review.

Whilst MFS has been secretive about the number of bidders and their exact offers for Stella Group, CVC Asia Pacific is expected to be the forerunner in negotiations.

CVC Asia Pacific last year attempted a failed takeover of Stella Group putting an AU$1.6 price tag on Stella. It was rejected as MFS then valued the Stella entity at over AU$2 billion.

This time round, CVC is said to be asking for more of a stake than the 50% requested last time, and could go as high as requesting 65% – and at a substantially lower price.

Market watchers are unsure as to whether a sell off of a substantial chunk of Stella can save MFS now, saying their group debt of AU$1.69 billion is too big even for Stella to help resolve.