China Mengniu offers to buy out Modern Dairy for $826 million
HONG KONG China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd has offered to buy out China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd for $826 million in a deal that will help it secure a stable supply of raw milk.
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim plans to increase his stake in The New York Times Co by exercising at the end of this year warrants he received when he made a major loan to the newspaper company, according to a report in Bloomberg.
The report, which cited a person familiar with the matter, said Slim plans to hold his stake in the New York Times Co. He currently owns about 8 percent of common shares though this will increase to about 17 percent when he exercises the warrants, according to the New York Times Co latest proxy filing.
A spokesman for Slim was not immediately available to comment. A spokeswoman for the New York Times Co declined to comment.
Slim's warrants were part of deal he made with the company in 2009 when he loaned it $250 million during the height of the economic crisis when many big city newspapers reported plunges in advertising revenue.
Slim received the option to buy 15.9 million Class A shares at $6.36 each. The warrants expire in January 2015 and the New York Times repaid the loan almost three years ago.
Shares of the New York Times Co closed down 1.2 percent at $14.62 on Wednesday.
The New York Times Co, which publishes the namesake newspaper, is controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through Class B shares.
(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York and Christine Murray in Mexico City; Editing by Eric Walsh)