KKCG Maritime improves its offer for stake in Ferretti Group
Czech investment group KKCG has raised its voluntary offer to increase its stake in Italian yacht builder Ferretti, lifting the proposed price to €3.90 per share in an attempt to encourage greater shareholder enthusiasm over the transaction.
KKCG has reportedly been preparing to propose a shareholder vote to oust directors with connections to Weichai Group.
The revised proposal, reported by Reuters, values Ferretti at about €1.32bn and would allow KKCG to purchase up to 52.1 million shares, around 15.4 per cent of the company’s share capital. If fully subscribed, the deal would be worth as much as €203.3m. The updated price represents a 2.7 per cent premium to the most recent closing price before the revision and a 35.1 per cent premium to the level at which the shares traded before the offer period began.
KKCG has said the increase is final and that the offer will not be raised again, citing takeover rules in Hong Kong it must adhere to.
The adjustment follows criticism of the original €3.50 proposal, made in January 2026, which Reuters reports many market observers viewed as a lowball. Ferretti previously said an independent financial adviser judged the initial bid to be “not attractive”, while the company’s independent board committee advised shareholders to reject it.
The offer forms part of KKCG’s effort to expand its role in the yacht maker’s development. It is structured as a partial tender rather than a bid for full control, which means the outcome depends heavily on whether shareholders are willing to shift the current balance of governance.
Early participation has been extremely limited. Regulatory filings show that cumulative valid acceptances reached 2,000 shares eight trading days after the acceptance window opened, equal to 0.003836 per cent of the 52,132,861 shares being sought. Under the original terms, which carried a maximum consideration of roughly €182.5m, the acceptances at that stage were worth only about €7,000.
The muted response followed the board’s recommendation against the proposal. Citing the analysis of adviser Altus Capital, directors said the €3.50 offer was “neither fair nor reasonable”. During the same period, Ferretti shares traded above that level on both the Milan and Hong Kong exchanges, allowing investors who wanted to exit to sell at a higher price.
KKCG has challenged the board’s position, arguing that the recommendation reflects the stance of Ferretti’s controlling shareholder rather than an impartial review of the offer. The Czech investor noted that four of the six directors who voted against the bid were non‑independent nominees of Ferretti International Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Weichai. Three of the five directors who issued a recommendation through the Independent Board Committee were also nominees of the same shareholder.
In a filing responding to the rejection, KKCG said the outcome reflected “the stated opposition of the offer by FIH rather than an independent assessment of the offer from the perspective of all shareholders.” Three directors abstained: chief executive Alberto Galassi, non‑executive director Piero Ferrari and independent non‑executive director Stefano Domenicali.
KKCG has warned that once the offer period ends and those purchases potentially decline, “there seems a real risk that the share price may drop back to the levels seen before the Undisturbed Date”. The filing also quotes the Independent Board Committee’s own wording that investors “should carefully consider personal investment objectives, and the potential trade-off between short-term investment gains and long-term potential of the company.”
The acceptance period runs until 13 April. Attention will then shift to Ferretti’s annual general meeting scheduled for 14 May 2026, where the dispute is expected to move to a contest over board representation. Neither KKCG nor Ferretti International Holding has yet announced candidates for the board.
Ongoing tensions at Ferretti Group
Bloomberg saw an internal document sent by Weichai to its parent company, which claims that directors linked to the Chinese shareholder have been “effectively cut off from the company’s main operating environment and only carry out sporadic, superficial tasks in the Milan office.” Bloomberg reports that the same document adds that Galassi has “in effect achieved full control over Ferretti” following a recent management reshuffle.
The dispute revives friction that followed a 2024 incident in which hidden listening devices were found in Ferretti’s Milan offices. The discovery prompted two investigations by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office. Bloomberg previously reported that the bugs were discovered in offices used by Chinese executives during that period of tension.
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