Jevic ups VINZ offer, government policy affects valuation

Friday 25th January 2013

Vehicle inspectors Jevic New Zealand has upped its offer for all the shares of Vehicle Inspection New Zealand (VINZ) to a level that has won approval of directors who can't see a competing offer eventuating.

Jevic has increased its offer to $2.15 a share from the $1.65 a share, valuing VINZ at $5.4 million.

The new offer is being unanimously recommended by directors who are accepting it on behalf of their own holdings.

Chairman Ken Worsley said $2.15 a share was a fair price in the current extremely uncertain regulatory environment for companies that pre-vet imported used vehicles.

"The increase of 50 cents per share is a significant improvement over the original price offered," he said.

The price is close to the middle of a range in the report of independent adviser Simmons Corporate Finance.

But the report ascribes an extremely wide range of valuations depending on possible changes to government policy relating to warrants of fitness, certificates of fitness, and vehicle registration.

The report values VINZ at between $3.26 to $3.70 per share if the status quo continues, but says this is an optimistic position.

Under a scenario of only changes to policy on warrants of fitness, the value range is $2.27 to $2.55 per share and under a wider range of policy changes the value drops to between $1.77 and $1.93 per share.

VINZ's shares are traded on the unregulated Unlisted securities trading facility. The company had a market capitalisation of $3.8 million as at January 18.

Its unaudited total equity was $5.1 million as at December 31, 2012.

Jevic has lockup agreements with four shareholders and who own about 18.5 percent of VINZ.

Among VINZ's services is the completion of vehicle entry certification for the NZ Transport Agency and it currently has about 40 percent of that work.

The Jevic group provides pre-shipment inspections in Japan and the UK and says it is the country's largest biosecurity vehicle inspectorate with about 85 percent of that market.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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