Shareholders vote to save struggling Duc
The vote means Netherlands-based Plukon Food Group subsidiary, Aurelia Investments BV, holds 97.7% of the share capital and voting rights of Duc.
Plukon Food Group is buying the shares from CECAB, Verneuil Participations and Financière Duc.
In the general assembly this week, Duc shareholders voted to increase the share capital by €11m.
‘Financial sustainability’
A new board of directors was also formed during the vote, with Peter Poortinga, CEO of Plukon Food Group, named chairman of the board of directors.
The business has been trying to capitalise itself to “ensure its financial sustainability and to accelerate its growth”, a spokesperson from Duc told this site.
Duc has confirmed Plukon will now launch a tender offer to raise 100% of the share capital, in order to buy Duc shares still in circulation on Euronext Paris – a European stock exchange market.
The transaction price is €1.10 per share. This action will see a “mandatory squeeze-out” that will see all of Duc’s shares transferred to Plukon Food Group, and Duc SA struck off from the stock market.
Poultry processor Plukon Food Group announced in December that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Duc for an undisclosed sum. The Netherlands-based business has already guaranteed the security of more than 800 Duc employees.
Further to this, Plukon subsidiary Aurelia Investments has also committed to invest €20m over a three-year period to improve production efficiency at Duc’s meat plants. Despite the investment, Duc said it expected “significant write-offs” from creditors on 20 December 2016.
Duc has been under pressure for some time and, last year, suffered serious revenue losses as a highly pathogenic avian influenza strain saw key export markets, such as China and South Africa, suspend poultry trade with France.
