By Martin Vedris
SUNSHINE, VIC: Buying a 19.4% stake in Breville Group has produced a great return so far for Sunbeam parent company, GUD Holdings, but the company has no plans for further share acquisitions in Breville Group or a seat on the board.
Investing in Breville Group has been a wise investment so far for GUD Holdings. On Friday 29 May, the company purchased 25,073,712 shares in Breville Group (BRG), which is 19.36% of the total 129,515,322 BRG shares currently on issue.
That investment cost GUD Holdings $18,089,343, which translated to a share price of approximately $0.72 per share.
Today, the BRG share price has reached a high of $1.070 at the time of writing this story, which translates into an $8.7 million gain for GUD Holdings, or a 48% return on the initial investment in less than 3 full business days.
While a rising share price is now a great result for both companies, GUD Holdings managing director Ian Campbell is not getting carried away.
In his release to the Australian Stock Exchange on Friday 29 May, announcing the share acquisition, Campbell was conservative.
“As the owner of Sunbeam, the acquisition of 19.4 per cent of Breville is an attractive investment opportunity for GUD, satisfying the company’s strategic and financial objectives. GUD was approached to buy the shares and has no current intention to acquire further shares in Breville.”
And today Campbell played down the size of the investment and any speculation of voting control or a seat on the Breville Group board.
“We now own less than 20% of the company,” said Campbell. “That’s hardly control.”