EcoSecurities looked set to become the subject of a bidding war after the carbon credits group received its second takeover approach in four days.
Its shares rose by more than 30 per cent, closing 18p up at 77p, after EDF Trading, the trading division of the French energy group, revealed that it was considering making an offer of 75p per share, valuing the group at £88.6 million.
The move came after Guanabara, a group chaired by Pedro Moura Costa, one of EcoSecurities’ founders, said on Friday that it was considering a 60p-a-share bid. The shares stood at 44p on Thursday.
EcoSecurities has dismissed both approaches as “wholly inadequate” and advised shareholders to take no action. City analysts believe that both groups are likely to make improved offers and are not dismissing the prospect of another party expressing an interest.
The company also revealed that it had recently received and rejected a conditional proposal from EDF at 96p per share.
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Guanabara, which is backed by BTG Investments, a Brazilian investment group, strengthened its hand yesterday after BTG bought 2.25 million shares in EcoSecurities, taking Guanabara’s stake, including shares owned by Mr Costa, to more than 12 per cent.
EcoSecurities makes money by sourcing projects, ranging from a hydroelectric power plant in Honduras to a pig farm in the Philippines, with reduced emissions, which are eligible to be awarded carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol. EcoSecurities develops the project to ensure that it gets the credits, which it agrees to buy, in order to sell on, mostly to utilities and governments, which need them to offset emissions. The company appeals to EDF because it would allow the French group to obtain much cheaper carbon credits, which typically it would buy from an intermediary such as EcoSecurities or in the open market.
However, the way carbon offsetting works could change under a treaty to be negotiated at the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December. One possibility is that forest protection schemes and technology such as carbon storage and fuel cells will be eligible for credits.
Agustin Hochschild, an alternative energy analyst at Mirabaud, said that buying a company such as EcoSecurities was the cheapest and easiest way of participating in the carbon market. He thought that both groups would make better offers.