Two of Charter International PLC’s largest shareholders have voiced their support for a proposed takeover by Melrose PLC, despite the engineering group agreeing a higher GBP1.5 billion bid from U.S. manufacturer Colfax Corp, the Daily Telegraph reports Wednesday, citing one of the shareholders.
Reacting to Charter’s decision on Monday to recommend Colfax’s 910 pence cash-and-shares offer, Schroders fund manager Richard Buxton told the newspaper: “As far as we understand, the general consensus among most Charter shareholders is that they would have preferred to have seen the company recommend the Melrose offer because it would allow investors to participate in any future upside.”
The views of Buxton, who owns 8.7% of Charter, were echoed by David Lis, head of equities at Aviva Investors, which has an 8.5% stake, the report says.
London, September 14, 2011 (Dow Jones)
