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Louis Dreyfus raises Namoi Cotton offer to $92 mln valuation, tops Olam Agri's bid LDC increases offer to A$0.67 apiece
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LDC offer 1 cent above Olam Agri's bid
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Namoi Cotton shares rise as much as 2.8%
May 7 - Dutch global commodity merchant Louis Dreyfus Company has raised the ante on an international bidding war for Australia's Namoi Cotton by sweetening its offer price marginally above that of rival suitor Olam Agri .
Namoi's second-biggest shareholder with around 17% control, LDC has proposed to buy the rest of the Australian cotton producer for A$0.67 per share, valuing the company at A$138.6 million , Namoi said on Tuesday.
That is just a hair above Olam Agri's latest A$0.66 per-share offer, which values Namoi at A$136.6 million.
Shares of the Australian cotton ginning company rose as much as 2.8% to A$0.74, their highest since November 1999.
Namoi is Australia's largest cotton producer, while Olam Agri already owns rival Queensland Cotton. Both LDC and Olam Agri have been bidding back and forth to gain control of Namoi since January this year.
Gaining full control of Namoi would help the acquirer expand its presence in Australia, giving it access to Namoi's ginning network and warehouses in New South Wales and Queensland.
Both the offers are subject to the bidders acquiring a 50.1% stake in Namoi. LDC has already rejected Olam Agri's latest offer, while Namoi's top shareholder Samuel Terry Asset Management has so far backed both the offers.
Singapore-based Olam Agri did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment, while STAM declined to comment.
Just minutes after the new takeover offer was announced, an exchange filing issued on behalf of LDC showed the Dutch firm had raised its stake in Namoi to 16.99% from 16.40%.
LDC had made an offer of A$0.60 per share in late April, which was outbid by Olam Agri. The Singapore-based firm had said last week its latest A$0.66 per-share offer would be hiked to A$0.70 if it obtained at least 90% stake in Namoi.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
