The notice sent to shareholders today from AHG and signed by acting chairman John Groppoli, comes hours after AP Eagers despatched its script takeover offer.

In the notice sent by AHG, it said: “There is no benefit to you in accepting the offer at this time and you may be disadvantaged”.

“The offer remains highly conditional and you will not receive any AP Eagers shares while these conditions remain outstanding.

“If you accept the offer you will not be able to sell your AHG shares on market.

“AHG shares are trading at above the value implied by the offer. Your shares are currently worth more on the market than under the offer.”

AP Eagers has offered 3.8 AHG shares for every one AP Eagers share in a bid made on April 5. The AHG shares were trading at $1.78 at close of business on April 4, valuing the offer at $6.76 per APE share. At that time, APE was trading on market at $7.28.

AHG shares were trading at $2.43 this morning, a premium of 65 cents per share to the APE offer. AHG has traded in a range of $1.39 to $3.52 in the past 12 months.

AHG will now prepare a target’s statement and forward it to AHG shareholders on or before Wednesday, May 8, 2019. This statement will contain the board’s recommendation.

AHG has appointed KPMG as the independent expert and commissioned KPMG to prepare the independent expert’s report for inclusion in the target’s statement.

In closing, Mr Groppoli told shareholders that “the offer is highly conditional and AHG expects that there will still be a significant period of time for you to determine a course of action following receipt of the target’s statement.”

By Neil Dowling