{"id":588858,"date":"2026-07-16T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/588858\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:25:13","slug":"sweetened-dcc-offer-fails-to-win-over-some-top-shareholders-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/588858\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweetened DCC offer fails to win over some top shareholders \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US private equity consortium pursuing DCC <\/a>has sweetened its offer with the prospect of an additional payment of up to \u00a31.25 (\u20ac1.47) a share from the sale of the group\u2019s technology unit. <\/p>\n

However, this has failed to allay concerns among some top shareholders and small investors attending its annual general meeting (agm) that the group is set to be sold too cheaply. <\/p>\n

DCC shareholders\u2019 approval of a planned \u00a31.47 dividend per share at the agm on Thursday, payable on July 23rd, has also effectively nullified the consortium\u2019s inclusion of this payment in its proposal. <\/p>\n

The bid from KKR and Energy Capital Partners therefore now stands at as much as \u00a366.50 per share, or \u00a35.68 billion (\u20ac6.69 billion) in total. The shares were trading at \u00a363 late afternoon in London. <\/p>\n

Some major shareholders \u2013 including Fidelity International, DCC\u2019s founder, Jim Flavin<\/a>, and Aviva Investors \u2013 have signalled they will not support the latest pitch. The agm in Dublin also heard concerns being expressed about a deal being struck at the current bid level. <\/p>\n

The latest offer would see shareholders receive as much as \u00a31.25 extra per share \u2013 or \u20ac106.8 million in total \u2013 if DCC achieves at least $800 million (\u20ac697.6 million) from a sale of DCC\u2019s tech division, known as Nexora, which is on the market and expected to be sold by the end of the year. <\/p>\n

That is in addition to a cash offer of \u00a365.25 per share that has been on the table since June 10th, which DCC\u2019s board previously said it was \u201cminded to recommend\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"Will the State\u2019s plan for the Carlton Cinema site revitalise O\u2019Connell Street?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the net proceeds are below $800 million, the amount payable under the Nexora proceeds adjustment would reduce (potentially materially) progressively down to zero,\u201d said DCC, which also secured agm approval to change its name to DCC Energy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have never before seen a plc board appear so receptive to such a lowball offer from the likes of KKR, who are world-leading corporate raiders,\u201d said Stephen Carroll, speaking as proxy for shareholder Alice Carroll. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0DCC founder calls for \u2018CRH-like\u2019 independent ambition as board nears sale dealOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A second small shareholder, who did not give his name, said he \u201cfully endorsed\u201d Carroll\u2019s comments. Chairman Mark Breuer said the board has a duty \u201cto look after the interests of all shareholders\u201d and to \u201ccreate as much value as we can for the body of shareholders\u201d. <\/p>\n

The board has not indicated whether it is preparing to back the current proposal. <\/p>\n

KKR and Energy Capital have been granted a fourth deadline extension, until 5pm on July 27th, to make a formal offer or at least commit to a firm intention to do so. <\/p>\n

Flavin, who retains a 3.2 per cent stake 18 years after resigning as executive chairman, said the latest proposal is \u201ctinkering at best\u201d and changes nothing in his view that DCC should remain independent and continue its growth strategy. He has said that if DCC is to be sold, the board should hold out for an offer of at least \u00a3100. <\/p>\n

Aviva Investors, with a 2.2 per cent stake, said that the modestly improved offer is not enough. \u201cIt would represent a bad outcome for shareholders and accordingly we would not support it were the board to recommend it,\u201d said Matt Bennison, head of UK active equities at the firm.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Fidelity Investment, which owns 6.9 per cent of the company, said the company has nothing to add to its previous statement two weeks ago, when it said it \u201cwould not accept anything below \u00a370 in cash per share\u201d. <\/p>\n

DCC, whose businesses once spanned Robert Roberts tea and coffee to waste management, decided in late 2024 to abandon what remained of its conglomerate roots.<\/p>\n

It sold its healthcare unit a year ago for an enterprise value of \u00a31.05 billion. It also offloaded part of its technology business, with the remainder of that division currently on the market.<\/p>\n

DCC said in a trading statement ahead of the meeting that the energy division was \u201ctrading ahead of the prior year\u201d in its first fiscal quarter to the end of June, despite the conflict in the Middle East bringing forward some demand from customers into the previous quarter. The technology division was also doing better than the previous year, in line with expectations, it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US private equity consortium pursuing DCC has sweetened its offer with the prospect of an additional payment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,39991,226985,18,19,17,156508],"class_list":["post-588858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dcc","tag-donal-murphy","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kkr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}