LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Shareholders in Alliance Boots PLC, the international health and beauty group, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of an 11 bln stg recommended bid from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), the US private equity group, and executive deputy chairman Stefano Pessina.
A total of 271.3 mln (96.3 pct) of the proxy votes cast at the Court Meeting were in favour of the 1,139 pence a share scheme of arrangement offer with 10.3 mln (3.7 pct) against.
The proxy votes for the subsequent Extraordinary General Meeting were not immediately published but are expected to be broadly the same.
For the deal to go through, some 75 pct of votes cast had to be in favour.
Acceptance of the offer means Alliance Boots shares will de-list on June 28, the group becoming the first FTSE 100 company to fall into private equity hands -- 10 months after it was created through the merger of Boots Group PLC and Alliance UniChem.
KKR/Pessina outbid Guy Hands' Terra Firma vehicle, which had been working with the Wellcome Trust medical charity, to win Alliance Boots.
At 10.55 am, shares in Alliance Boots were down 1/2 pence at 1,128-1/2 pence. The stock was trading at just 815 pence before the group announced it had received an approach. james.davey@thomson.com msc/bsd COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
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