The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has given the green light for Glanbia Co-op to take full control of Glanbia Ireland.
The CCPC made and announced its decision today (Monday, March 28), saying it had cleared the proposed transaction for the co-op to buy out Glanbia PLC’s 40% shareholding in Glanbia Ireland.
The proposed transaction had been notified to the CCPC on February 14, last.
The authority said that it has formed the view that the proposed transaction will not substantially lessen competition in any market for goods or services in the state.
The CCPC will publish a full document with its reasons for its decision no later than 60 working days after the date of the determination and after allowing the parties the opportunity to request that confidential information be removed from the published version.
The funding arrangements for the deal were formally completed earlier this year.
The co-op said on January 20, that it had completed the placement of 5.75 million ordinary shares in Glanbia PLC (equivalent to approximately 2% of Glanbia PLC’s issued share capital), at a price of €12.25/share.
It is thought that the share placement raised approximately €70 million for Glanbia Co-op.
Following the completion of the share placement, the co-op held approximately 30.5% of the issued share capital (as of January 20) of the PLC.
The co-op also said that it had raised €250 million through the launch of an equity-linked exchangeable bond.
The five-year bond is linked to a pledge of approximately 15.1 million PLC shares (5.3% of the issued share capital).
The co-op will retain full ownership of the pledged shares until such time (if any) as an exchange is carried out in accordance with the terms of the exchangeable bond, and will continue to benefit from any dividend paid by Glanbia PLC on the shares.
The share placement and exchangeable bond issue followed the decision taken at a Special General Meeting (SGM) of co-op shareholders on December 17, to approve the acquisition of the remaining 40% stake in Glanbia Ireland.