Panasonic raises takeover offer for subsidiary PanaHome after minority shareholders protest

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp said that it has raised its takeover offer for its subsidiary PanaHome Corp, after shareholders said that that the offer undervalued the company.

Panasonic yesterday raised its offer from ¥1,009 per share in stock to £1,200 per share in cash, a 16.4-per cent premium to PanaHome yesterday closing price.

Panasonic said in a statement that it had decided to make an all-cash offer to buy the rest of PanaHome in a deal worth ¥92.4 billion ($846.9 million).

Some PanaHome shareholders were not happy with the original offer, which they said undervalued the company and did not reflect its large cash holdings.

Hong Kong-based fund, Oasis Management, PanaHome's largest shareholder after Panasonic, had opposed the deal saying that the offer undervalues the homebuilder by more than 50 per cent. It asked for a bigger share-exchange ratio or for PanaHome to pay out its cash as a special dividend.

PanaHome was established in 1963 as National House industrial Co., Ltd through the joint equal investment of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Matsushita Electric Works, and became Panasonic's subsidiary in 2004.