DCC’s shares soared at lunchtime on Wednesday after it emerged that two US private equity groups Energy Capital Partners and KKR circling the business have upped their proposed bid by 15 per cent to about £5.7 billion (€6.6 billion).
The Dublin-based, but London-listed company said in a statement that the latest proposal – comprising £65.25 per share in cash and a payment of a proposed £1.47 final dividend by DCC – is of a level where the board “would be minded to recommend” to shareholders.
The Irish Takeover Panel has granted DCC’s request to extend a so-called “put up or shut up” deadline, originally set for 5pm on Wednesday, for the US firms to table a formal bid or firm intention to make a bid. Energy Capital and KKR now have until close of business on July 8th.
“The board of DCC intends to engage in discussions with the consortium to explore the revised proposal in further detail and allow for the consortium to complete a limited period of confirmatory due diligence,” the group said.
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The current £66.72-a-share proposal is the latest of a “a series” that have been made by the consortium since DCC said at the end of April that it had rejected a £58-a-share bid as “fundamentally” undervaluing the company.
Shares in DCC rose 3.3 per cent to £62, still well off the latest proposed price, as the market digested the news.
Energy Capital is a specialist investor in the energy transition, specialising in 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, leaving the company among the smallest on the FTSE 100 by market value earlier this year.
DCC, whose businesses once spanned Robert Roberts tea and coffee to waste management, decided in late 2024 to abandon its conglomerate routes 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.
DCC 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.
“It remains DCC’s intention to have reached agreement for the sale of the business by the end of the calendar year 2026. The consortium is supportive of DCC’s intention to continue to pursue the technology disposal,” DCC said in the statement on Wednesday.
Chief executive Donal Murphy and his team have long held that the energy business and related opportunity in energy transition presents the largest growth opportunity, at strong returns, available to the group.
