The board of Marel, the manufacturer of slaughter machines listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, has rejected the unsolicited offer from the American manufacturer JBT. The company announced this on Tuesday morning.
Last Friday it emerged that machine manufacturer JBT offered 3.15 euros per share and wanted to take Marel off the stock exchange. The offer was well above Thursday’s closing price of the company, which has a large factory in Boxmeer in the Netherlands.
Yet the board of directors of the Icelandic Marel is not satisfied with the amount offered. JBT would offer too little. The board emphasizes that it is open to offers that “fully reflect the value of Marel”.
Marel was listed on the Damrak in 2019, with investment fund Blackrock and Credit Suisse joining as shareholders. The company has its origins in Iceland, but took over the chicken slaughtering branch of Stork in 2008, giving it a large presence in the Netherlands. The company employs a total of approximately 8,000 people worldwide; turnover amounted to approximately 1.7 billion euros in 2022.
High expectations
Expectations were high in 2019: Marel could benefit greatly from the growing demand for meat in emerging economies. Although the consumption of vegetarian meat is slowly increasing, the popularity of meat is still growing much faster worldwide. However, the company’s share price has recently come under considerable pressure. Customers worldwide postponed orders due to economic uncertainty. As a result, the price had fallen to the lowest point since the IPO at the beginning of November.
JBT makes various types of machines for processing food and drinks, as well as automatically moving carts. Around 5,000 people work there, fewer than at Marel. Sales amounted to just over $2 billion in 2022. The company may now decide to proceed with a hostile takeover attempt, or possibly increase the offer.
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