Ticketing and labelling giant TMA has been revealed as the mystery bidder in a potential $250m takeover of the country’s biggest printer, PMP.
The news – revealed by the Australian Financial Review and confirmed by PMP yesterday – comes three weeks after the print and distribution company received an offer more than triple its then share price of between 68 to 78 cents per share, pushing the company’s value as high as $252m.
Yesterday morning, PMP’s securities were placed on hold pending the release of its latest announcement. In a statement to the ASX, PMP confirmed the offer from TMA, but added it was highly conditional and non binding.
The statement adds, “There is no certainty that TMA or any other party will proceed with any proposal for the acquisition of PMP or, of it does, the timing of such a proposal or the terms and conditions on which any such proposal will be made.”
Following the announcement, PMP resumed trading, reporting a 22 per cent jump in share price to 45 cents.
PMP added that TMA had provided funding commitment letters in a form that is customary at this preliminary stage of a potential transaction.
“The views expressed in the funding commitment letters are preliminary and any funding commitment that may be made in the future is subject to the completion of due diligence to financiers’ satisfaction credit and other required approvals and documentation.”
The TMA Group, which was de-listed from the ASX last year, is a diversified operation headed by Anthony Karam, who along with his sister Corienne, controls around 81 per cent of the business.
TMA’s manufacturing capabilities encompass tickets, tags, thermal paper products; register rolls, integrated labels and other associated printed media material, coupled with warehousing and national distribution facilities.
The company is also no stranger to growth and acquisition buying out Label Press in 2004, established a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary in New Zealand during 2005, acquiring Cashflow in 2007, and merging with Mark Sensing Limited in 2008.
According to the Australian Financial Review, TMA reported a 23 per cent increase in pre tax profit to $4.8m for the 2011 financial year from revenue of more than $66.9m.
