Independent non-executive directors of Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) have recommended Liberty International’s offer to buy the 25% of CSC it does not currently own.
The directors did not originally recommend the offer of 0.714 Liberty shares and 40p in cash for each CSC share, which would give Liberty full control of the firm in which it already owns 75%.
Liberty said last week that it now controlled 89.1% of CSC, which owns the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex and the MetroCentre in Gateshead. Liberty wanted to gain full control of CSC to remove its stock market listing, which Liberty said caused confusion for shareholders and gave rise to discounts and value traps.
The CSC independent non-executive directors said in a statement: “CSC shareholders who do not accept the offer risk becoming either part of a small minority in the company with much reduced liquidity in the shares or shareholders in an unlisted company.” Shares in both firms were little changed in morning trade. CSC was up 1.5p to 396.5p, while Liberty was down 0.5p to 496p.
EGi News 07/11/00
