Elph's Coote offer not fair: expert

An independent assessment of Elph's proportional takeover offer for Coote Industrial has deemed the bid neither fair nor reasonable, and valued the target's shares at least 10 cents higher than the offer.

BDO Corporation Finance was hired by Coote to review Elph's cash offer of 26 cents for each share.

Elph, a part of Victorian and Tasmanian Caterpillar dealer, Dale Elphinstone's group of companies, wants to lift its interest in Coote from 24.95 per cent to 35 per cent.

In its report, BDO said the 26c cash offer was less than the value it had attributed ot each Coote share of between 36c and 50c.

"We consider the offer to be not reasonable because the disadvantages of the offer to shareholders outweigh the advantages," BDO said.

"In particular, the offer is not fair, Elph could gain control of Coote while only paying a premium of 35% of Coote's shares and shareholders will have a reduced interest in Coote while many of the advantages of the offer could be achieved without the offer being successful."

Shares in Coote were unchanged at 25c at 10:23 AEST.