Cardno to reject Crescent offer

The board of infrastructure services group Cardno has told its shareholders to reject a $215 million takeover proposal it received earlier in the week from Crescent Capital Investments.

In a statement today, Cardno said it intends reject Crescent’s offer to acquire one out of every two shares held by Cardno stakeholders at $3.15 each.

“The Crescent offer is opportunistic, unsolicited and subject to a number of conditions,” the company told its shareholders.

“If the offer is successful, Crescent may acquire up to just under 60 per cent of Cardno shares.

“Non-Crescent shareholders will be minority shareholders and Crescent will have obtained control without having to acquire all of your shares.”

Cardno said the offer sought to exploit its recent share price weakness, but acknowledged that the company’s performance had not been acceptable.

“In order to improve performance, the board has taken decisive action including initiatives to improve capital management and cash collections, and reduce costs,” it said.

Cardno also called upon its shareholders to vote in favour of all resolutions at its annual general meeting next week, including its remuneration report and the re-election of non-executive directors Elizabeth Fessenden, Grant Murdoch and Anthony Barnes.

Cardno has appointed UBS and Morgans as financial advisers, and McCullough Robertson as legal adviser.

Shares in Cardno were 1 per cent lower to $2.94 each at 1:30pm.