Two

major shareholders

in Canada’s

GDI Integrated Facility Services Inc.

say they’ll

reject a take-private bid

from

Birch Hill Equity Partners Management

and the company’s top executive.

Gestion de Portefeuille Strategique Medici Inc.

, which holds 15.4 per cent of GDI’s subordinate voting shares, said the offer of $36.60 per share is too low. It’s “unfair to shareholders, and does not reflect GDI’s intrinsic value or its medium- and long-term prospects,” the firm said in a news release.

A portfolio manager with

Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.

told Bloomberg News the firm doesn’t plan to support the current offer. Montrusco holds 13 per cent of the subordinate shares.

To pass, the deal needs the support of the majority of votes cast by the holders of subordinate voting stock, excluding those who are planning to roll their stock into the private company.

Another large shareholder,

Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec

, said it’s currently analyzing the takeover proposal.

Toronto-based Birch Hill and Gestion Claude Bigras, a firm controlled by GDI’s chief executive, announced the takeover bid in December at a 25 per cent premium.

Medici said in its statement that Bank of Nova Scotia’s valuation framework to justify the privatization is “overly pessimistic,” since it doesn’t include potential mergers and acquisitions.

The bank was hired by GDI’s board of directors to conduct a financial analysis and established a fair value range of $32.02 per share to $37.75.

“Given each transaction presents unique business and financial characteristics such as, among other factors, size, geography, timing, growth rates, profitability margins and business risks, Scotiabank did not consider any specific target or precedent transaction to be directly comparable to GDI,” the financial institution explained in its report.

Bloomberg.com

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