LONDON (Reuters) -Shareholders in British supermarket group Morrisons will get to vote on a 6.3 billion pound ($8.7 billion) takeover offer from a consortium led by the SoftBank owned Fortress Investment Group on August 16, it said on Thursday.
A scheme document outlining Fortress’ offer said a court meeting and a general meeting of shareholders would be held on that date.
Fortress’ offer is worth 254 pence a share – 252 pence in cash and a 2 pence a share special dividend.
Morrisons said the special dividend would be paid two weeks after the takeover became effective.
The supermarket group said it and Fortress were also in talks with the trustees of Morrisons’ pension schemes.
It said Fortress has confirmed it appreciates the importance of the schemes as key stakeholders and recognises the need to maintain the support currently provided to them and that this requires mitigation to be agreed.
“Discussions are continuing with the trustees to agree appropriate mitigation and the trustees have stated their intention to issue their opinion on the Fortress Offer in due course,” Morrisons said.
($1 = 0.7286 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Sarah Young and Kate Holton)
