Olam Agri Holdings has increased its takeover bid for Namoi Cotton just two days after independent directors at the Australian cotton producer recommended a rival offer from Louis Dreyfus.
Olam raised its bid to A$0.75 ($0.66) per share from A$0.70, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday, valuing the company at A$154 million.
The most recent offer from Louis Dreyfus, which already owns more than a fifth of Namoi’s shares, values Namoi at A$138 million and is set to close on Friday.
The rival agricultural traders have been jostling to buy the processor since January in a bid to gain a bigger foothold in Australia’s cotton industry, the world’s sixth-biggest.
Namoi’s independent directors rejected Olam’s former offer in an exchange filing on Wednesday, despite it being marginally higher than Louis Dreyfus’s bid, citing greater uncertainty.
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is still assessing Namoi’s bid after last month conditionally approving Louis Dreyfus’s. The Rotterdam-based crop trader also received approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board last week after it agreed to measures that would allay some concerns.
Chart: Bloomberg
