EcoSecurities gets improved takeover bid from Guanabara

ECOSECURITIES, a Dublin-based developer of emission-reduction projects, has received an improved takeover offer from Guanabara Holdings.

Dutch firm Guanabara was set up to attempt the takeover and yesterday raised its offer by 17 per cent to £0.90, saying the new offer will remain open until September 18th.

The offer values EcoSecurities at about £106 million (€120.3 million).

Shares in EcoSecurities closed up 6.6 per cent at 88p in London. Guanabara said shareholders representing 25.53 per cent of EcoSecurities had pledged to accept the takeover offer

This compares with the 12.3 per cent acceptance for the original offer of 77p on July 16th. Its shares have risen 11 per cent since Guanabara announced its offer.

Guanabara said it needs the backing of 50 per cent of investors to conclude the deal. Its bid includes funding from BTG Investments LP, led by Andre Esteves, former head of fixed income, currencies and commodities at Zurich-based UBS AG. Pedro Moura Costa, chairman of Guanabara, is a co-founder of EcoSecurities and served as president until resigning on April 23rd.

The increased offer is “fair value”, partly because United Nations regulators have so far failed to demonstrate to investors they can confidently make a return on spending on emissions-reduction projects, Mr Costa said yesterday. The UN is seeking to introduce international climate-protection laws starting in 2013, to determine the fate of the clean development mechanism of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in which EcoSecurities invests.

“It’s very difficult to attribute value in the longterm when you have no visibility,” Mr Costa said. “I do believe the company will be able to generate wealth”, probably over a longer time frame than through 2012, he said.

EcoSecurities manages a large number of emission projects overseen by the UN. It creates and trades certified emission reduction credits, or CERs, in the UN’S clean development mechanism, the world’s second-largest carbon market.

EcoSecurities had described the original 77p-a-share offer as “wholly inadequate”.

(Additional reporting Bloomberg)