Vitalharvest Freehold Trust (ASX: VTH) shares could soar today on reports of a takeover offer.
What’s happening?
According to reporting by the Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk, Macquarie Group Ltd‘s (ASX: MQG) Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets has made a takeover bid of $1 cash per share to buy the whole business.
Based on the pre-open Vitalharvest share price, that’s a 28% premium. If that fails then it’s willing to pay $300 million for all of the trust’s assets. It also represents an 11.8% premium to its adjusted net assets.
Vitalharvest has been going through a lot of change this year. It only recently went through a change in the management where Primewest Group Ltd (ASX: PWG) took over the management rights and planned to invest in more consistent agricultural real estate assets that could provide consistent rental returns. Areas like food logistics, food storage and food processing are (or could have been) targets for the business.
Summary thoughts
If the takeover does go ahead, I think it’s a satisfactory ending for long term investors who have faced difficult conditions. It provides immediate recognition of the value of the farms, though an upswing in performance may have just been around the corner.
There are other ASX dividend shares I’d buy with any proceeds (or spare cash) like Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW) or Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL) which I covered here.
