After much speculation, the UK wines and spirits group, Allied Domecq, has launched a counter takeover bid for the Australian wine company, Peter Lehmann Wines (PLW). Allied has made a A$143.6m or A$3.85-per-share bid for the Barossa Valley winemaker in which it already owns a 14.5% stake.
The company also said its offer price would rise to A$4.00, or A$149.2m, if it won approval from 90% of PLW shareholders.
As was widely predicted, Allied has offered more than the bid from the privately-owned Swiss group, Hess, which made its A$3.50-per-share move, valuing the company at A$133m, at the end of August.
The Lehmann family, which owns around 13% of the company, has expressed concerns about a possible takeover from Allied changing the company’s culture but Allied moved to address these concerns by saying on Monday that the company would join Allied’s “loose confederation” which allowed “autonomy at a local operational level”.
