Not content with directly approaching Hellaby Holdings shareholders in a bid to acquire the company for 322.5 million, or $3.30 a share, Australian-based Bapcor is now questioning the New Zealand company’s planned acquisitions of six automotive companies.
The rhetoric between the two companies grows daily with Hellaby directors dismissing Bapcor’s threat to start operating in New Zealand from a zero base if its takeover bid fails.
Bapcor chief executive Darryl Abotomey told NBR that he is aware of some of Hellaby’s potential purchases “and some of them I would say it is welcome to.”
According to the NBR, Hellaby Holdings says it should buy six bolt-on businesses within the next 18 months, adding about $105 million to its automotive division’s sales bringing further scale and synergy, as well as accretive earnings.
But Abotomey is suggesting Hellaby has previously been adding sales but not profitable sales to it automotive division.
“When you look at Hellaby’s automotive, it added $60 million in sales last year and had made an extra $600,000. That’s not my idea of a good investment,” he says.
Hellaby managing director Alan Clarke told NBR all six acquisitions would be complementary to the businesses it already owns.
