Group Boosts Offer to Buy Holly Sugar, Go Private

A group led by the management of Holly Sugar has increased its offer to take the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based beet sugar producer private.

The offer was disclosed Friday by the group, Arcanum I Partners, which is offering $40 in cash and an 11.5% bond with a face value of $90 for each of the 900,000 shares it does not own. Previously, the group, led by Holly Chairman Michael Buchsbaum, offered $35 in cash and a share of new preferred stock.

A spokeswoman for Shamrock Holdings, a Burbank investment company that owns about 9% of Holly’s stock and has made its own offer for the company, said it would have no comment on Arcanum’s new offer until it could be reviewed.

Shamrock, owned by the Roy E. Disney family, has offered to buy Holly for a package that includes $45 in cash, a certificate that would pay as much as $70 over 20 years and preferred stock or bonds with a face value of $70.

After the disclosure, Holly closed Monday at $103 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. That puts the company’s market value at $115.4 million based on 1.12 million shares outstanding.

Last week, another investment group, Brookehill Securities, a New York-based firm that owns 10% of Holly, requested a special shareholders meeting to consider replacing Holly’s board of directors.