The acceptance level had reached 81.35% by Monday, just three weeks after the offer was received and well inside the original December 6 closing date.
SFL Holdings, the vehicle through which Shanghai Pengxin and partners Juliet Maclean and John Penno are making the offer, has extended the date to December 20.
Overseas Investment Office approval is required for the takeover and the Chinese company also needs Chinese government agency approval.
The regulatory processes were well under way but timing of the final decisions could not be predicted, Synlait Farms independent committee chairman Steve Howse said.
January 5 next year was the original date for the approvals to be received but it was possible the process might take longer, Howse said.
If the acceptance level reached 90% by January 1 there was provision for a slight price escalation to accepting shareholders.
For that reason the independent directors were encouraging shareholders to return their forms as soon as possible, Howse said. The takeover offer was at $2.10 a share.
SFL Holdings had a lock-up agreement with Synlait Farms founders Maclean, Penno, and Ben Dingle for their shareholdings (totalling 50.18%) and by Monday another 49 shareholders owning 31.17% of shares had also accepted.
Synlait Farms shares were returned to the Unlisted Platform on November 20 after a trading halt from early October while the takeover offer was made and explained to shareholders.
At time of writing there had been no new trades, with buyers offering $1.95 and sellers wanting $2.10.
Before the trading halt shares had traded at $1.60.
