CAB Payments lashes out at largest shareholder for blocking buyout
CAB Payments has hit out at its largest shareholder for thwarting a takeover offer from trading platform Stone X, accusing it of ignoring minority investors’ interests in a bid to force through its own hostile takeover.
In a statement ramping up the hostile rhetoric between the two parties, London-listed CAB said it was “disappointed” Helios Investment Partners had chosen to block a final offer from Stone X, which it claimed was “in the best interest of shareholders as a whole”.
The statement is the latest twist in a high-profile battle between Stone X and Helios to take control of CAB Payments, which has seen the fintech reject a barrage of offers from both parties since February.
The group’s board was especially dismissive of bids from a consortium run by its previous owner Helios, which took the payments firm public three years ago, branding its initial bid as “highly opportunistic”.
But last week, US trading juggernaut Stone X tabled a sweetened last-ditch 110p per share offer for the embattled payments firm. CAB’s directors recommended its shareholders accept the bid, which valued the company at £241m, a 29 per cent premium to Helios’s largest offer. But it required rubber-stamping from the private equity shop on account of it owning a more-than 45 per cent stake in the company.
Delisting to end CAB Payments’ chastening stock exchange turn
After Helios confirmed its plans to vote down the bid on Friday, CAB Payments accused its former owner of denying minority shareholders the chance to crystallise their investment at a hefty premium.
“The independent board is deeply concerned that the Helios Consortium’s position in respect of the Stone X final possible offer is depriving minority shareholders of the opportunity to realise value at a recommendable price and at a significant premium to the Helios Consortium’s firm offer,” the firm’s directors said.
The bidding war looks poised to bring CAB Payments’ torrid three years on the London Stock Exchange to an end. The fintech listed to great fanfare in 2023 at a bumper £851.4m valuation, but was forced to issue its first profit warning just three months into life as a listed company after being hit by a a slew of headwinds in key African markets.
The update caused its share price to plummet some 74 per cent in a single day’s trading. Its shares have more than doubled since then, but are still languishing more than 70 per cent below the valuation it fetched at IPO.
Helios’s decision to reject Stone X’s final bid plunges CAB’s future into further uncertainty. London listing rules prevent the US firm from tabling another bid unless it receives a bid from a new suitor.