Macquarie trumps Roc bid in battle for citrus and berry farm owner Vitalharvest

The battle for Vitalharvest has taken a couple more twists and turns. See the latest.

Vitalharvest leases its farms to the Costa Group,

The fierce battle for citrus and berry farm owner Vitalharvest has now attracted 15 bids and neither of the vying parties are showing signs of giving up on the target.

Roc Private Equity lodged its seventh bid for Vitalharvest Monday at $1.27 a unit or purchase of the assets for $349.95m.

But it was quickly trumped by a $1.28 a unit bid or $351.8m for the assets by original suitor Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management.

That was MAFM’s eighth bid since announcing a proposal to buy out Vitalharvest last November at $1 a unit.

The Vitalharvest Responsible Entity board said that, other than price, the terms of the latest MAFM bid were the same as that announced on April 30 and described in the second supplementary scheme booklet detailed on May 4.

“The VTH RE board is considering the seventh Roc offer and the eighth MAFM proposal and will provide a further announcement to the market once it has done so,” the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“VTH unitholders do not need to take any action at this time.”

Last Friday, Macquarie exercised its option to buy 30 million units in Vitalharvest from the Primewest Property Fund, representing 16.2 per cent of the total units.

Macquarie had struck the deal with Primewest Managment Ltd last November 17.

Roc PE’s adviser, David Williams, principal of Kidder Williams, said the competition for Vitalharvest had been good for the takeover target’s shareholders.

He said Macquarie had made its initial bid at $1 when units were trading at 80c, but now the price had risen to $1.28 a unit.

“Since Roc got involved, the shareholders are a long way ahead,” he said.

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