The takeover saga of Lighting Corporation, a lighting systems distributor, continued today as it told its shareholders to reject another hostile bid from Gerard Lighting Acquisition's, which was upped last Friday.
Friday's offer had been increased to 98 cents from the initial 88 cents bid made on 8 October 2007.
In response, Lighting Corporation's Directors have reaffirmed their position and advised shareholders to reject the offer:
"The revised Gerard Offer is still neither fair nor reasonable at $0.98 per share."
Gerard Lighting Acquisitions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gerard Lighting and has been building a stake in Lighting Corporation for the best part of the year.
"Lighting Corporation's growth and prospects are too strong for shareholders to sell out at $0.98 per share.
"Don't let Gerard obtain control of Lighting Corporation well below fair value." the company said in a statement.
An independent assessment valued the company between $1.07 and $1.16 per share, and the revised offer represents a 12% discount to the mid-point of the independent expert's range.
Lighting Corporation is riding high on confidence as results show it continues its trajectory for strong performance in FY2008.
The company said sales revenue was up 12% and normalised earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was 24% ahead of the prior corresponding period.
"Drivers for this continued growth have been experienced across Lighting Corporation's business units with trends and prospects outlined in the target's statement expected to continue. The order book remains very strong and at near record highs," the company said.
LCL's managing director, Dov Mowszowski and interests control around 25% of the company's shares and other associates are believed to speak for another 10% or so.
The company's annual general meeting is held on 21 November 2007 in Sydney.
The stock traded in a narrow range to reach a 52-week high of 99 cents to end the day unchanged at 98 cents.
