James Baxter-Derrington, Investment Week, 22 December 2023:
Octopus Renewables investment trust (ORIT) has made several attempts to engage with Aquila European Renewables (AERI) over 2023, in a bid to merge the two vehicles.
According to a regulatory filing this morning (22 December), the £506m market cap ORIT has “sought on several occasions” during 2023 to engage the board of £274m market cap AERI with a view to a combination of the trusts…
The board of AERI noted this morning’s statement and confirmed the “unsolicited proposals”.
It referred to a 14 December 2023 announcement made by the board of AERI that confirmed the trust is exploring “a number of different initiatives to address the issues facing the sector and to secure recognition in the company’s share price of the real underlying value of the company’s portfolio”.
It added the board has “committed to consider broader options”, including a potential merger with another listed trust.
Matthew Read, senior analyst at QuotedData, said the team is “yet to be convinced” of the potential merger, but suggested AERI is “right to consider a broader range of options”.
He added: “AERI’s board will also need to consider the interests of all of its shareholders and not just those that ORIT has approached.”
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