An offer from surviving family members of Industrias Bachoco founder Robinson Bours to buy out the remaining shares of the publicly held company remains stalled, but a recent vote by certain members of the company’s board of directors revealed that those members think the offer is fair.
In March, shareholders of the family of Robinson Bours, the founder of Bachoco, informed Bachoco’s board that it intended to launch a voluntary public offering for up to all of the outstanding shares of the company, which amounts to about 27% of Bachoco’s outstanding capital.
Shortly after that offer was announced, Bachoco formed an ad hoc committee, exclusively consisting of independent members of Bachoco’s board of directors, was formed in April to consider an offer that was announced on March 25. That offer was made by certain unidentified shareholders to purchase all of Bachoco’s outstanding publicly owned shares not owned by such shareholders. The offer was to make the purchase at MXN81.66 (US$4.08) per share, a price that offers a premium of about 20%.
The ad hoc committee recently determined the offer was “reasonable from a financial point of view,” and stated it would inform the full board of directors of that opinion.
Shortly after that opinion was shared, the board decided to meet on September 28, which included members who are shareholders of Bachoco, to discuss the offer. However, wanting to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest, the proprietary and alternate directors, members of the Bours family and related parties, decided to abstain from participating and being present at the deliberation and voting, the company announced in a press release.
The members of the board who did vote during that meeting agreed that they considered the offer fair, and that they would be willing to take part in the offering, but they could not speak on behalf of the other members of the investing public who hold shares.
Bachoco, according to the Poultry International Top Companies survey, is Mexico’s largest broiler producer and the ninth largest in the world. As an egg producer, Bachoco ranks as the second largest in Mexico and the 13th largest in the world. Its U.S. subsidiary, OK Foods, is the 17th largest broiler company in the United States.
