{"id":113167,"date":"2026-02-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/2026\/02\/18\/dfm-listed-unikai-rejects-al-wafirs-majority-takeover-bid\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:00:00","slug":"dfm-listed-unikai-rejects-al-wafirs-majority-takeover-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/2026\/02\/18\/dfm-listed-unikai-rejects-al-wafirs-majority-takeover-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"DFM-listed Unikai rejects Al Wafir\u2019s majority takeover bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kuwaiti suitors won\u2019t be getting Unikai any<\/strong>time soon: <\/strong>Shareholders of DFM-listed Unikai Foods rejected Kuwait-based Al Wafir Marketing Services\u2019 bid to acquire a controlling stake between 50% plus one share and 51% of Unikai\u2019s issued and paid-up capital, according to a bourse disclosure (pdf)<\/a>. Despite the board\u2019s recommendation to accept the AED 6.60 per share allcash offer, the assembly voted down all resolutions related to the takeover, including the independent financial and judicial opinions.<\/p>\n

The offer was rejected despite coming at a 7.8% premium<\/strong> to its last closing price before the offer was submitted.<\/p>\n

The rejection leaves Unikai\u2019s modernization plans in limbo.<\/strong> We\u2019ve previously noted that the company\u2019s stretched balance sheet<\/a> \u2014 with interest-bearing debt at over 3x its net income \u2014 as a primary driver for seeking a regional partner.<\/p>\n

REMEMBER- The acquisition would have <\/strong>been another cross-Gulf play<\/strong>, after Al Futtaim\u2019s stake acquisition in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Cenomi Retail<\/a> last year. It bore a lot of the characteristics of Al Futtaim\u2019s play: a heritage family conglomerate (the Al Mullas) faces operational headwinds and brings in a heavy-hitting regional operator (Al Wafir) to fix the house.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/strong> Unikai says it is now evaluating its next steps. We\u2019ll be keeping an eye out to see if Al Wafir chooses to revise its offer.<\/p>\n

ADVISORS- <\/strong>Al Wafir had appointed Fab as financial advisor and lead receiving bank, with Al Tamimi & Company providing counsel. Al Mal Capital acted as an independent financial advisor, and Abdulla Alawadi & Associates provided counsel to Unikai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unikai says it is now evaluating its next steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2392],"tags":[7,678,60],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-113167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ma-watch-2","tag-enterpriseam-uae","tag-food-and-beverage","tag-ma-watch","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"743e0bcf-60cc-4254-b17f-f900c0f48fb9","order":"6","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/2\/1137.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"DFM-listed Unikai rejects Al Wafir\u2019s majority takeover bid","related_issue":[113157],"teaser":"Unikai says it is now evaluating its next steps"},"yoast_head":"\nDFM-listed Unikai rejects Al Wafir\u2019s majority takeover bid - 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