A takeover battle could be looming for JBA Holdings Plc, the beleaguered Birmingham, UK-based ERP vendor as the share price has risen to 255 pence – above the 250 pence a share offer for the company that the board accepted last week from Canadian software and services company Geac Computer Corp Ltd. Geac shares slid more than 4% in Toronto to $29.90 on fears the bid will be unsuccessful. Amid growing dissatisfaction from key shareholders at their board’s acceptance of the $136m bid from Geac, shares have been changing hands at up to 279 pence suggesting that another bidder may be about to make an offer for the company.
While the board has accepted the bid in respect of the 11.6% of shares owned by directors, latest disclosures show that Lazard Asset Management now holds a 12.62% stake while Peter Rigby, chairman and CEO of privately-owned Specialist Computer Holdings Ltd now controls 11.27% of the shares. Rigby is known to be unhappy at the 250 pence offer and while Lazard Asset Management is not commenting officially, the Financial Times reported that it was unlikely to accept the bid in respect of its holding.
While JBA’s recent financial record is atrocious, and it is pulling out of high-end ERP operations that account for 40% of its revenue, the company has 4,500 worldwide customers. Selling software is not a problem for JBA as it increased revenue by 31.4% to 291.5m pounds ($464m) in the last financial year. What JBA is currently unable to do is make any money from its activities and it turned in a loss of 7.6m pounds ($12.1m) down from profits of 3.5m pounds ($5.5m).
