Semapa ~9% of the Iberian portfolio
On 19 February, the Queiroz Pereira family, through its holding company (Sodim), launched a takeover bid for the 28% it does not control in Semapa (XLIS:SEM, Financial) at €11.4/share, which it subsequently raised to €12.17/share. In Cobas AM we consider the offer price to be low. By only taking into account objective issues such as the market value of Navigator (where Semapa has 69%) and the debt of Semapa, we reached a value of ~€14/share. To which we believe the following should be added: i) the value of Secil, a cement company that has obtained an average EBITDA close to €90 million in the last six years and ii) the difference between the target value of Navigator and its market value. With all this, we reached a higher value per share of € 20, far from the €12.17/share offered by Sodim.
It would not be the first takeover bid that we would not take part in because we consider that the price offered is well below our target value. From our previous stage we highlight the case of Camaieu, in which we received three takeover bids between 2006 and 2007, each one at an increasingly higher price than the previous one. We finally agreed to the third one because the price offered was close to our valuation.
From Francisco Garcia Parames (Trades, Portfolio)' Cobas Asset Management first-quarter 2021 shareholder letter.
