The US private equity consortium circling DCC has been given another week to at least confirm a firm intention to bid for the group.
There is no sign that it plans to improve its offer again, even as some of top shareholders the company have signalled they would not support a £5.7 billion (€6.67 billion) proposal made last month.
The Dublin-based, but London-listed group, which is currently in the process of shedding the remains of its conglomerate roots to focus on the energy sector, said that the Irish Takeover Panel had agreed that the suitors, Energy Capital Partners and KKR, would have until 5pm next Wednesday, the eve of DCC’s annual general meeting (AGM), to make a bid or announce a firm intention to bid.
“The consortium has confirmed to the board of DCC that confirmatory due diligence has been materially completed, and has requested a short extension to the [put up or shut up] deadline to allow for the finalisation of definitive transaction documentation,” DCC said in a statement late on Wednesday. This has been granted by the panel after a request from DCC.
READ MORE
DCC said on June 10th that its board was “minded to recommend” the proposal from US-based Energy Capital Partners and KKR, which represented to a 15 per cent improvement on a pitch made in April that was rejected as “fundamentally” undervaluing the company.
However, DCC’s largest shareholder, Fidelity International, came out last week against the latest offer – which equated to £66.72 a share – as failing to reflect its real value.
Aviva Investors, with a 2.2 per cent stake, and 1.1 per cent shoulder Ninety One, formerly known as Investec Asset Management, subsequently told the Financial Times that they were not in favour of selling at the planned price.
Energy Capital is a specialist investor in the energy transition, focusing on electricity and sustainable infrastructure. KKR is one of the most storied New York investment groups – set up in 1976, the same year that DCC was founded, by Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts – that pioneered the debt-fuelled corporate buyout industry. The approach in April followed years of underperformance by the stock relative to target prices set by analysts.
DCC, whose businesses once spanned Robert Roberts tea and coffee to waste management, decided in late 2024 to abandon its conglomerate roots by putting its then healthcare division on the market and signalling a strategic review of its technology unit that would also eventually lead to it being put up for sale.
Led by chief executive Donal Murphy, the group sold its healthcare unit a year ago to private equity fund-owned HealthCo Investment for an enterprise value of £1.05 billion. It also offloaded part of its technology business, with the remainder of that division currently on the market.
