April 20, 2007

Agricore accepts C$19.25 per share bid from Richardson

Agricore United has accepted the revised takeover offer from James Richardson International Ltd at C$19.25 a share.

Agricore said the revised Richardson offer matches the proposal made by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool last Friday (Apr 13).

As reported, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's offer would have meant that each Agricore share would be exchanged for C$14 plus 0.6623 of a Pool share. Richardson had until Friday to match or exceed the Pool offer.

The new Richardson offer is all-cash. Its previous offer was C$6.50 plus 0.509 of a share for each Agricore share.

Agricore, a Winnipeg agribusiness, said it accepted this Richardson offer instead of a proposal that Richardson submitted at the same time. The second proposal was for C$20 a share but would have included conditions relating to Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM), which is Agricore's principal shareholder with 28 percent of the outstanding limited-voting shares.

The Agricore board said the second Richardson offer was not in the best interests of its shareholders, since it prevented Agricore from considering any other takeover offers.