Accolade Wines has advised that it is “not in a position to continue discussions further at this time” with Australian Vintage regarding a potential merger.
Australian Vintage received notice of this on May 22, “shortly after” members of the CCW grower co-operative in the Riverland declined to accept Accolade’s buy-out offer.
As a result, Australian Vintage (trading as AVG) requested a voluntary suspension of its shares prior to trading on Monday 27 May.
AVG noted that it was unable to make the intended announcement referenced in its trading halt request last week, and would subsequently make an announcement regarding the raising of capital and refinancing debt.
The company expects its net debt to be $70-$75 million by June 30, compared to the previously expected $43-$50 million.
According to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Simon Mawhinney, managing director of Allan Gray, the investment group that owns roughly a 17 percent share of AVG, said he would need to see the details of the capital raising before he could asses “the extent to which we will participate in the raising”.
“Unfortunately it does seem like there is a lot of painful water still to pass under the bridge,” Mawhinney told the AFR.
Are you a Daily Wine News subscriber? If not, click here to join our mailing list. It’s free!
