Petra

Petra: The Business Times picks up from Petra's announcement last week. Petra’s deal to sell its cocoa ingredients business to Barry Callebaut for US$950m (subject to adjustments at completion) may have hit a sour note as the buyer is now asking for a closing price reduction of US$98.3m. This comes after the estimated sale proceeds was already cut to US$860m bcs working capital delivered at completion was lower by ~US$74m. Should Petra be compelled to accept the closing px reduction, it would mean a chunky 20% slice off the original px when the deal was struck in Dec last yr. This could mean a potential estimated net loss per share of US 6¢ from the sale transaction, instead of the net gain per share of US 10¢. This estimated shortfall of 20¢ could prompt analysts to further knock down their avg TP of $4.20.