Retail entrepreneur Philip Green has teamed up with the millionaire Barclay brothers to launch a £519m cash bid for the Sears group, it emerged today.
The bid values each Sears share at 340p – a premium of more than 10% on yesterdays closing price.
The offer is being made through a shell company ultimately controlled byFrederick and David Barclay, the brothers whose empire includes the Ritz Hotel and The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and Sunday Business.
Green has joined the company – January Investments Limited – as chief executive. It is chaired by Aidan Barclay.
The bid has received support from fund manager PDFM which has pledged its 22.3% stake in Sears to support the takeover plan.
Green pointed to Sears’ “failed attempts to dispose of or demerge the Freemans business, a significant erosion of Freemans performance and value and continued erosion of Sears shareholder value as a result of a poor disposal strategy.”
The latest disposal by Sears came yesterday when it sold its credit card business, Creation, to French group Cofinoga and Banque National de Paris for a greater-then-expected £141m.
Green has been stalking Sears for several months and just before Christmas made a cash bid also of around #519 million.
That bid was made through Medinbond, a company controlled by Green. The Sears board lead by chairman Sir Bob Reid rejected the offer describing it as not in the best interest of shareholders.
The bid was conditional on Sears providing information on disposals and liabilities, trading performance at Freemans and progress on the disposal of Creation.
The announcement of the Creation sale yesterday appeared to clear one of these conditions.
Green is no stranger to Sears – he bought its Olympus sports group and sold it on to JJB Sports for a £40m profit.
EGi News 14/01/99
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