Couche-Tard again extends offer for Casey’s

New York City Alimentation Couche-Tard extended its $1.9 billion hostile offer for Casey's General Stores again, even as essentially all stock previously tendered in favor of the deal has been withdrawn in the past month.

The month-long extension, to Sept. 30, is Couche-Tard's third. The offer has steadily lost favor with investors who originally tendered 19.2% of shares when the bid was first extended. As of Aug. 30, only about 1.1% of outstanding shares of Casey's had been tendered and not withdrawn.

Canada's Couche-Tard is offering $36.75 per share for Casey's General Stores, which has said that offer is too low. The company's shares were trading up 11 cents just above $38 on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, Casey's last week announced early results of a buyback offer that it launched as part of a recapitalization plan. The Dutch auction tender offer -- under which shareholders chose to turn in shares for between $38 to $40 each -- expired at midnight Wednesday.

Casey's said last week that a total of 28.2 million shares were tendered at the minimum price of $38 per share. Casey's expects to buy back about 13.2 million of the common shares for $38 apiece for a total cost of $500 million.

"Given that Casey's is already creating more value than is reflected in the Couche-Tard offer and will deliver significant additional upside through execution of our business plan and strategic growth initiatives, we are not surprised that so few shares have tendered into Couche-Tard's inadequate, highly conditional $36.75 per share offer," Casey's said on Tuesday.