Macquarie outbids Roc Partners by 0.5c in battle for Vitalharvest

Macquarie has lobbed its ninth bid to take over Costa Group’s landlord, Vitalharvest.

Vitalharvest owns the land where Costa Group grows its blueberries. Picture: Chris Kidd

Bidding has begun to slow for Costa Group’s landlord, Vitalharvest, with Macquarie Bank increasing its offer by 0.5c a unit.

Macquarie has been engaged in a bidding war with Sydney investment firm Roc Partners since February to take over the listed trust company, which owns the land where Costa grows its berries and citrus fruits.

On Wednesday, Macquarie lobbed its ninth offer for Vitalharvest, raising its bid to $1.295 a unit – or $354.58 million. It comes a week after Roc sought to outbid Macquarie by 1c, raising its offer to $1.29 a unit.

Vitalharvest said in a statement to the ASX that Macquarie’s revised bid was superior to Roc’s. But Roc has an ace up its sleeve. When it made its bid last week, it introduced a clause stating that if Macquarie revised its offer, it would outbid it by 1c.

While sources close to Macquarie dismissed Roc’s clause as “meaningless” and an “infinity bid”, those close to Roc say it was seeking to level the playing field, effectively introducing a matching right, which Macquarie enjoys.

Roc now has five days to withdraw its intention to outbid Macquarie by 1c.

But Macquarie is not the only one to question Roc’s outbidding clause. Vitalharvest told unit holders that the clause was not legally binding and recommended they accept Macquarie’s bid.

“(Vitalharvest) does not consider Roc’s indication that it intends to overbid any further offer by MAFM by the equivalent of $0.01 per unit to be a legally binding offer. Vital Harvest does not know whether such an offer will be received or, if it is, whether Roc will seek to withdraw the offer in the five business day period Roc has specified,” it said in a statement to the ASX.

Vitalharvest has been keen to wrap up the bidding war between Roc and Macquarie before the end of the financial year, baffling investors. It is understood this is to avoid paying unit holders another dividend off the earnings for the six months to June 30.

But unit holders are keen for the bidding to continue to maximise the value of their investment. After all, the bidding for Vitalharvest has jumped from $300 million to more than $350 million after Roc entered the fray.

Now, all eyes are on Roc to see if will outbid Macquarie, yet again, by early next week.