US group offers US$500m for Cementos Bío Bío

Chile-based Cementos Bío Bío revealed that on 29 May it received an offer from US group Mississippi Lime Co to acquire 100 per cent of the company and that the shareholders are negotiating the sale of the company. The offer, for almost US$500m, was reported in an essential fact filled with the Financial Market Commission 30 May. 

However, the board decided to make the information public because a shareholder of Bío Bío, Peruvian company Yura, gave an offer last week for 20 per cent of the Chilean cement company, thus reaching 40 per cent of the shares. Yura bought 20 per cent of Bío Bío for US$50m in 2019. Felipe Vial, the president of Cementos Bío Bío, said, “The initiation of a takeover bid by Yura Chile SpA makes it necessary for all shareholders and the market in general to have all the information that could be relevant for their investment decisions.”

The offer from Mississippi Lime Co was for 100 per cent of the shares but would be declared successful if at least 67 per cent of the shares were obtained. The US company proposed an indicative price of US$1.89 per share. Bío Bío holds 264,221,000 shares, giving a 100 per cent valuation of US$499,377,690. The essential fact disclosed this Tuesday continued: “The board of directors in the extraordinary session of this date placed on record that the due diligence process has been substantially concluded recently and that negotiations by the shareholders are still ongoing.” The disclosure of the negotiations with Mississippi Lime Co will probably scupper the Yura group’s takeover bid for Bío Bío, as the Peruvian bid valued the Chilean company at around US$250m, half of what the US company are offering.