KARACHI: Dada Partners (Pvt) Limited acted as exclusive financial adviser to the Nishat Group on acquiring a controlling stake in Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited, a statement said.
This, it added, is the largest private sector cross border merger and acquisition transaction of a listed company in Pakistan, excluding privatisations. The transaction, totalling approximately Rs66 billion, entailed the acquisition of 73.9 per cent shares of the company by the Nishat Group. Fifty-one per cent was purchased from the majority shareholder Ingredion Incorporated, USA, which has retained a strategic minority shareholding.
An additional 20.5 per cent was purchased from a minority shareholder and 2.4 per cent through the mandatory public offer. In this multifaceted transaction, Dada Partners advised the group across all stages of the process, including deal origination, due diligence and valuation, competitive bidding and negotiation, execution of share purchase agreement and transfer of controlling stake.
The process also covered the post-transaction governance framework between Nishat Group and Ingredion as a continuing minority shareholder, regulatory approvals for competition, the public offer and foreign exchange remittance, and bank FCY acquisition financing.
Dada Partners acted as the exclusive financial adviser to the Nishat Group throughout the transaction, while Cornelius, Lane and Mufti served as legal counsel, and Next Capital were the Manager to the Offer on the public offer. Dubai Islamic Bank were the foreign currency lender to the transaction.
