Greg Jenkins said on 5 April........"A certain Clifford Elphick...

Greg Jenkins said on 5 April........

"A certain Clifford Elphick has been reported to be speaking on a regular basis to Miles K. This takeover is not over yet..."

And Brewsters Millions said this morning.....

"The MD was in London a few weeks ago not sure what for."

And the Intelligent Investor also said this morning in it's article "Takeovers - a practical guide".....

Two types of takeover....

Now, it’s worth digressing to note that there are two types of takeover. There’s the official, legally defined takeover, which is an offer made by a ‘bidder’ to buy everyone’s shares in the target company (this can be done either ‘on market’ or ‘off market’ but we won’t worry about the difference here). Increasingly common these days, though, is the scheme of arrangement.

Technically speaking, a scheme of arrangement is not a takeover at all, but a shareholder (and court) sanctioned reorganisation of a company’s share structure (you can also have creditors' schemes of arrangement which reorganise a company's debt structure, but that’s another topic). This difference in structure throws up quite a few important practical differences.

One difference is that a scheme of arrangement is always ‘friendly’. That is, the bidder and the directors of the target company will have been in talks before the announcement to agree the price and terms.