Country Bird raises Sovereign Foods stake

The company has been steadily tightening its hold on the junior foods company since it announced last month that it had acquired 13.4% of Sovereign.

It said in a stock exchange announcement on Monday that it had purchased 3101523 more shares at a price of 948c, giving it an effective shareholding in Sovereign of 22.76%.

The increase in shareholding comes after another announcement last month that it was considering extending an offer to all Sovereign shareholders to acquire the entire issued share capital of the company.

An analyst who declined to be named yesterday said the stage had been set for a takeover of the company, in which diversified foods group Afgri has already announced plans to reverse list its food business.

Afgri had valued Sovereign at R305m for its proposed transaction to reverse list it into Afgri Foods, which it valued at R1,02bn.

Country Bird said in its update to shareholders last month that any potential offer to Sovereign shareholders might exclude the Afgri deal.

Finance director Robbie Taylor was not keen to discuss the latest development, other than confirming that so far, the company had held fruitful discussions with management at both Sovereign and Afgri.

“In fact the communication channels are open with management of both the other parties and we are most pleased with the progress being made,” he said on Monday.

Sovereign Foods has steadfastly declined to discuss the tug-of-war for the company by two competitors, preferring instead to stick to a cautionary released recently when Afgri announced its reverse listing plans.

Source: Business Day

Published courtesy of