Heineken knocked by Thai offer for F&N

Charoen’s bid for the Singapore conglomerate a fortnight before a key F&N shareholders’ vote has raised doubts on whether the sale of the group’s 40 per cent stake in Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) to Heineken is a done deal as predicted by industry watchers just a week ago.

TCC Assets, a firm controlled by Charoen, offered to pay S$8.88 for the F&N shares that the billionaire did not already own. But industry watchers say the Thais need to pay more if they are serious about gaining full control of F&N.

“The offer is not convincing and runs the risk of being voted down by the F&N board,” CIMB Research analyst Donald Chua wrote in a note.

Since the offer restricts the Thais to buying F&N shares on the open market at prices not exceeding S$8.88, they will now need to raise their offer if they want to build their interest in F&N, traders said.

Charoen, Thailand’s third-richest man, controls 30.36 per cent of F&N, the bulk of it through Thai Beverage.

He needs a simple majority of votes at the meeting on September 28 to overturn the deal that F&N’s board and the Dutch brewer reached on August 18.

That means Heineken needs to rally shareholders with a collective interest exceeding Charoen’s stake to push through its $6.3bn purchase of all the shares in APB, including F&N’s stake in the maker of Tiger beer.