US packaged food company ConAgra Foods has said it has received notice of an unsolicited “mini-tender” offer, made by TRC Capital Corporation of Ontario, Canada, to purchase up to 3.5 million of ConAgra Foods’ common shares, which represents approximately 1.1% of the shares outstanding.
ConAgra cautioned shareholders against accepting the unsolicited offer, which it said was approximately 4.5% below the closing price of ConAgra Foods’ common shares on 2 August 2005, the day before the offer commenced.
The company said TRC Capital has made a number of “mini-tender” offers for the shares of other companies, including General Mills, Del Monte, Albertsons, Sara Lee, Hershey, Kellogg’s, Campbell’s, Colgate Palmolive and Coca-Cola Enterprise, for its profit. These offers are devised to seek less than 5% of a company’s outstanding shares, thereby avoiding many disclosure and procedural requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC has cautioned investors about “mini-tender” offers in an investor alert, ConAgra said.
