Proxy numbers meant the deal was already in the bag, but around 60 shareholders turned up in Sydney yesterday for Lion Nathan’s last meeting as an Australasian public-listed company to give their personal nod to Japanese food and beverages company Kirin’s $3.4 billion takeover of the rest of the company it did not own.



The bid won overwhelming support, with 98.75 per cent of the company’s 4696 shareholders voting 91.9 per cent in favour of Kirin’s $12 a share May bid for the remaining 53.87 per cent of the company it did not own. Kirin did not vote.



Lion Nathan’s interim dividend of 22 cents per share in June meant the original $12.22 bid, including dividend, reduced the offer to $12 per share ($11.50 for each Lion Nathan share, paid by Kirin and a special dividend of 50 cents per share, paid by Lion Nathan).



The vote cements the company as Australia's largest food and drinks group – to be known in future as Lion Nathan National Foods, employing 10,000 staff. Lion’s chief executive, Rob Murray, and his senior executive team will run the entire group from Sydney headquarters and an office in Melbourne.



Kirin’s ownership, now subject only to procedural clearance, has paved the way for it to integrate the Lion beer business with its National Foods dairy and juice group in Australia, including the Dairy Farmers milk group but not Kirin’s Australian malting business.



Chairman Geoff Ricketts said after the meeting sales of the combined company were $7.5 billion.



He also said that had the $7.7 billion offer by Lion Nathan for Coca-Cola Amatil succeeded earlier this year the Kirin takeover would not have been on the table. Lion wanted to buy 30 per cent of The Coca Cola Company’s shareholding in Coca-Cola Amatil.



Mr Ricketts said the most likely reason Lion was unsuccessful with its offer was because “Australia and New Zealand didn’t really register on the radar” at Coca Cola’s Atlanta headquarters.



He said at the time Coca Cola was also focused on its subsequently unsuccessful $US2.4 billion bid for Huiyuan Juice in China. If that takeover had eventuated it would have been the largest ever of a Chinese company.



Mr Ricketts said when Lion was listed on the NZX 10 years ago its shares were the equivalent of $3.53. The return to shareholders over that period had been nearly 300 percent - 132 per cent in the past five years - whereas returns over the broader share market in the last decade had been just 80 per cent.



Mr Ricketts reaffirmed that Kirin had no intention to sell the Lion wine business even though it had been struggling, nor was he aware of any plans to sell any other assets.



He said he had no great insights on talk of a Kirin/Suntory merger but if it did proceed he said it presented growth opportunities because Suntory was complementary to Kirin’s National Foods.



He said Kirin was in acquisition mode.



When a shareholder today questioned the value of the offer in light of the rising stock market, Mr Ricketts said Lion’s share price had not dropped in line with most market companies because it was a defensive stock. He therefore regarded the offer still to be at a premium price.



