Huge Group has been ordered to retract another video about its all-share offer to buy software services group Adapt IT, forcing it into an embarrassing climbdown as it works to secure the support of Adapt IT shareholders.
TechCentral reported earlier this week that three months after being forced to take down videos from its website in which it implored Adapt IT shareholders to accept its offer to buy Adapt IT, Huge Group had released a new video imploring Adapt IT shareholders to accept its offer rather than Volaris Group of Canada’s competing all-cash offer.
Huge Group was forced to take the earlier videos down from its website by the Takeover Regulation Panel, which regulates mergers and acquisitions in South Africa. The regulator objected to the videos Huge published online, saying they constituted announcements.
“Shareholders of Adapt IT are referred to the audio-visual material relating to Huge’s offer to Adapt IT shareholders, which has been posted on certain personal social media platforms by employees of Huge,” Huge said.
“Although the video was not made available on Huge’s website or on any other media platform of Huge, Huge has been notified by the Takeover Regulation Panel that the video constitutes an ‘announcement’ by Huge in respect of which approval from the TRP ought to have been sought prior to publication.”
Removed
As a result, Huge Group has now asked its employees to remove the video from their personal social media platforms and retract the statements made in the video.
In the new video, Huge Group CEO James Herbst and other executives say: “We are offering to give you 1.37 Huge shares for every Adapt IT share you own. Volaris is offering to give you R7 for each Adapt IT share you own, so our offer is greater!”
The release of the new video coincided with the approval by shareholders of the resolutions required to pursue the Adapt IT deal. Some 99% of shareholders who attended (attendance was about 90%) voted in favour of the resolutions.
Two weeks ago, 87% of Adapt IT shareholders voted in favour of the Volaris offer, paving the way for the company to be acquired and delisted from the JSE. — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media
- This article originally contained a link to the latest Huge Group video, which we downloaded from Vimeo and then re-uploaded to TechCentral’s YouTube channel. Upon reflection, publishing the video with this article did not add value to readers and it has been removed here and on YouTube
