Shares in EcoSecurities rose by nearly 5 per cent yesterday after a Swedish company entered the international bidding war for the carbon credits group.
Tricorona, Eco’s Scandinavian rival, revealed that it was considering a bid only a week after the British company rejected an improved 77p-a-share indication from Guanabara, a Dutch company backed by BTG, the Brazilian investment group, and chaired by Pedro Moura Costa, one of Eco’s founders.
EDF Trading, a unit of the French utilities group, recently indicated an interest in Eco, which sources green projects, develops them so that they are eligible for carbon credits and sells them on. However, EDF dropped its interest in Eco and agreed to buy credits from Guanabara, should its bid be successful. Eco’s shares rose 4p to 88p.
From Reuters last week:
EDF unit drops EcoSecurities bid for deal with rivalEDF Trading agrees deal rival bidder* EcoSecurities shares fall 3.4 percent
(Writes through, adds background, shares)
LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - EDF Trading pulled out of the bidding for British clean energy project developer EcoSecurities (ECO.L) and instead agreed a deal with the rival bidder, the unit of French utility EDF (EDF.PA) said on Thursday. EDF Trading said if a rival offer from EcoSecurities co-founder and former President Pedro Moura Costa is successful, it may exercise options to purchase a portion of the UK firm's pre-2012 Certified Emissions Reductions (CER) portfolio and enter a service deal with the company.
Shares in EcoSecurities, which develops carbon offsetting projects under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Mechanism scheme, fell 3.4 percent to 74-1/2 pence by 1327 GMT.
EDF Trading said last month it was considering a cash offer of at least 75 pence per share, which would have valued EcoSecurities at 88.6 million pounds ($145.4 million), trumping an earlier potential offer of 60p per share from Costa through his Guanabara Holding investment vehicle. [ID:nBNG489930] [ID:nL5244872]
EcoSecurities had rebuffed the Guanabara approach, which it described as "wholly inadequate", and also said at the time it had already rejected a 96 pence per share proposal from EDF....MORE
