(Bloomberg) -- Caltex Australia Ltd. rejected an A$8.6 billion ($5.9 billion) takeover bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. as too low, though gave the Canadian convenience-store giant the chance to sweeten its offer.
The A$34.50-per-share cash proposal “undervalues the company and does not represent compelling value,” Caltex said in a statement Tuesday. It offered to give Couche-Tard “selected non-public information” to allow the company “to formulate a revised proposal.”
Couche-Tard has already raised its offer from an original price of A$32 a share. It's chasing the Australian fuel retailer's network of about 2,000 sites as part of a broader global expansion.
Caltex Australia Gets Sweetened Bid From Canada's Couche-Tard
Shares of Caltex dropped 1% to A$34.42 at 10:40 a.m. in Sydney. The stock closed at A$29.79 on Nov. 25, the day before Couche-Tard's approach was disclosed.
Caltex will give Couche-Tard the private information once a confidentiality agreement is in place. Even then, any revised offer isn't certain, the Australian company said. Caltex said Couche-Tard's offer overestimates the tax credits available to almost all Caltex shareholders.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angus Whitley in Sydney at awhitley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, ;Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net, Jeff Sutherland
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