NZ private equity takes over CPI next week

Shareholders support PagePack’s acquisition of CPI Group with 99.48 per cent of votes in favour of the deal.

A hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria next week will finalise the scheme of arrangment, which will see a franked dividend paid to the shareholders.CPI shares are currently trading at 44 cents, up from their low of 24 cents last October. The takeover bid is pitched at 45 cents per share, which values the paper merchant at $62.3 million.

The planned takeover comes hard on the heels of BJ Ball’s aquisition of Focus Paper before Christmas. It represents the culmination of a strategy by Andrew Bull, BJ Ball CEO, of becoming a defining player in the region.

The wheels for the trans-Tasman expansion were set in motion with the entry of Maui Capital as the majority owner of BJ Ball last year. This provided the cash and importantly the nerve to take the Auckland-based supplier into the big time.

The directors of CPI announced a fully franked dividend of 18.5 cents per share which, if the Scheme of Arrangement becomes effective, will be paid to shareholders on Tuesday 10 May.

The company is still engaged in a legal dispute with Robert Francis, Beaver Press