“I traded my five percent holding.”
Edward jumped to his feet. “What! When and why are you here then? If you sold it in the last month then please leave this room immediately...” He felt like punching something.
“No Edward, I began trading almost a year ago when I had some personal problems.” The man was on his feet too. “I didn‘t know what was going on and I promise you everything is open and above board. It‘s just that I didn‘t want you to know. I could try to buy them back but the market is too steep for me especially now.”
Edward tried to calm himself down. Odili had been with him from the beginning, over ten years ago. Edward recalled the stock and share price movements almost a year before and how after studying them together, Odili asked to handle it while he was away in China.
“Odili, we have to talk later. You of all people know how I feel about this company.” He stared at all of them and asked grimly, “Is there anything else I need to know about?”
They were quiet and he turned to Benibo and Mrs. Olayomi. “Can I depend on you?” Both of them returned answers in the positive.
“So we have thirty-six percent counting my thirty-one and the five owned by you two.” They nodded. “The opposition has thirty-five, that leaves twenty-nine out there like you said.” He looked at each in turn to be sure he was getting it right this time. “So to forestall the takeover, we‘re looking to buy at least fifteen percent shares or get their holders to remain on our side?”
“That‘s correct.” Mrs. Olayomi replied, “The controlling interest is still fifty-one percent but the acquirers could ask to sit on the board. With this tender offer, they could even start a proxy fight. We have to come up with genuine reasons to reject the takeover bid.”
Edward regretted not buying up more shares in the years since he‘d bought the company. He was lax to assume the sixty-one between him and his management was enough. And here he was about to lose what made him who he was. He got back to the present.
“We have to do all we can to prevent that from happening. You‘ve listed all the major shareholder‘s names here, have any of them replied our target‘s statement?”