Rea Vipingo investors okay Robinow brothers’ Sh85 offer

Rea Vipingo shareholders on Tuesday agreed to sell stakes in the agricultural company to the Robinow brothers, the UK majority owners, taking the firm a step closer to delisting.

Shareholders accepted the buyout offer from Richard and Jeremy Robinow of the UK at the company’s extraordinary general meeting at Southern Sun Hotel in Nairobi.

The minorities have until May 13 to officially respond to the Robinow brothers’ Sh85 a share offer.

The Robinow brothers through Rea Trading and Rea Holdings Plc have a combined 57 per cent stake in the sisal plantations but are proposing to buy the remaining 43 per cent.

Rea Vipingo will delist from the Nairobi Securities Exchange should local individual and institutional investors accept the offer to the point of giving the Robinow brothers 75 per cent ownership of the agricultural company.

READ: Rea Vipingo plans diversification into power generation

If the brothers get a 90 per cent acceptance rate they can initiate compulsory acquisition of the reluctant shareholders.

Some of the local individual investors who were at the meeting, however, raised concern that the offer was not ‘sweet’ enough in the absence of a dividend payout.

Alois Chami, a vocal and seasoned investor, said the company ought to have given a dividend payout since not all shareholders will agree to the Sh85 per share offer.

“We do not know how many shareholders will take up the offer and those who will choose to remain,” said Mr Chami.

He added that the company had been making profits and had sufficient retained earnings and is in a position to pay dividend.

Rea Vipingo earnings per share as at September 30 last year stood at Sh5.85 and retained earnings were Sh2.22 billion.