SEOUL (Reuters) – Shares in Korea Zinc skyrocketed 29.9% on Thursday to a record high, after a tender offer for shares in the world’s biggest zinc smelter ended as it tries to fend off a takeover bid by private equity firm MBK and Young Poong.
Korea Zinc has not yet disclosed the outcome of its 3.2 trillion won ($2.4 billion) tender offer to buy its shares, which expired on Wednesday.
But investors are betting that both sides of the takeover battle will try to snap up more shares in a market where only a limited number of stocks are available. So far, neither side in the takeover battle appears to have a significant lead in stake size, analysts said.
“After tender offers, both sides are expected to rake in more shares through open purchase… Neither has a majority (stake) yet, and there will be people trying to take profit in the meantime,” said Cho Jun-kee, an analyst at SK Securities.
Korea Zinc, backed by Bain Capital, has been in a bitter fight for control of its $13 billion zinc empire with its co-founding Chang family, whose electronics conglomerate Young Poong made an initial tender offer with MBK in September.
MBK and Young Poong – which is already Korea Zinc’s largest shareholder – secured a 5.34% additional stake in Korea Zinc earlier this month, increasing their side to about 38.5% stake.
Meanwhile, the stake favourable to Korea Zinc’s current management was estimated at about 34% before Wednesday, according to Yonhap.
It is unclear how much this stake has increased since Wednesday’s tender offer expiry.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Jihoon Lee; Editing by Ed Davies)
