Retirement homes builder McCarthy & Stone today rebuffed a bid from its chairman and founder John McCarthy to take the firm private.
McCarthy approached colleagues with plans for a possible family buyout of the Bournemouth-based operation earlier this month.
Shares that climbed from 453.5p to 530p after the company announced just over 10 days ago that it had received a potential takeover approach sank 5% or 26.5p to 477.5p on today’s announcement.
Although the value of the approach has not been disclosed, reports said the family might have considered offering as much as 630p a share, which would have valued the company at £656m.
But a spokesman for the group said today: “It didn’t reflect the right value for the company.”
The fall in the company’s shares today was softened by a trading update which said that completions in the financial year so far are currently 23% ahead of those at the same point last year with average selling prices up 19%.
The company said that it was confident about its prospects for the
current financial year, which ends on August 31, despite the prospect of a less buoyant housing market in July and August “when prospective purchasers may find it takes longer to sell their existing properties”.
The company revealed last week that John McCarthy was behind the approach after press reports said his sons Spencer and Clinton, who already run retirement homebuilder Churchill Retirement Living, were the suitors.
They set up Churchill, formerly known as Emlor and based in Ringwood in Hampshire, in 1994.
Their father founded McCarthy & Stone in 1963.
References: EGi News 24/06/03
