Trade Me shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve Titan’s takeover scheme at a special shareholder meeting in Wellington yesterday.
Nearly all votes cast – 99.29 per cent – were in favour of the arrangement, which was approximately 65 per cent of the total possible votes that could be cast.
“The board was unanimously in favour of this proposal and was confident that this was an attractive offer for shareholders,” David Kirk, Trade Me’s chairman, said.
Kirk noted that the scheme arrangement still needs to be approved in a High Court hearing later this month.
“Provided the High Court process proceeds as we expect, Titan will acquire all of the shares in Trade Me in May and Trade Me will leave the NZ and Australian Stock Exchanges then.”
At this stage, it is expected that the scheme will pay shareholders NZ$6.45 per share around May 8, which is above the $5.93 to $6.39 per share at which the business’s shares have been independently valued.
Last month, the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office gave its consent to the acquisition, which along with the shareholder vote leaves only High Court approval as the final hurdle.
As of Thursday, Trade Me shares are trading at $6.43.
