Frontline says Offer for Acquisition of DHT Remains “Compelling”

2017-02-10

Frontline Ltd. acknowledges that the Board of Directors of DHT Holdings Inc. (“DHT”) (DHT) has publicly rejected the Company’s proposal to effectuate a business combination between the Company and DHT.

Robert Hvide Macleod, Frontline’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We believe that our offer to DHT shareholders is highly compelling since it provides a meaningful upfront premium, while also giving all shareholders the opportunity to realize the full benefit of the significant synergies and attractive upside that a combined company would create.”

The proposed offer made by Frontline, which represented a 19% premium to the share price of DHT as of closing of January 27th, 2017 and 31% premium to the 60 day volume weighted average price, was stated to be “wholly inadequate” by the Board of Directors of DHT, and not in the best interests of DHT’s shareholders. Rather than engaging in discussions with Frontline with the aim of achieving the highest possible offer to create maximum shareholder value, the Board of Directors of DHT adopted a one-year shareholder rights plan and has since continued to refuse to enter into any discussions.

DHT also stated that the proposed offer represented an opportunistic attempt to acquire DHT at a low point in the cycle, which Frontline finds irrelevant given the all-share offer.

We believe the combination of Frontline and DHT would be better positioned to participate in a market recovery than either company would on a stand-alone basis. The combined company would be expected to create the largest public tanker company by fleet size, market capitalization and trading liquidity. DHT shareholders would be expected to benefit from a substantially lower G&A cost per vessel and capitalize on synergy values. Finally, a superior access to debt and equity capital markets would be expected to enhance free cash flow generation further, maximizing value for both sets of shareholders.

As previously reported, Frontline, together with its affiliates, holds 15,356,009 shares of DHT, representing approximately 16.4% of DHT’s outstanding common stock based upon 93,433,804 common shares outstanding.

Source: Frontline

Source from : International Shipping News

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