The Evans family, founders of Evans of Leeds, is aiming to take the group back into private hands with a 125p a share offer launched today.
Director Michael Evans, who owns 53% of the company along with other members of the family, has approached the board with an offer to buy back the outstanding stake in the business.
The offer, which values Evans at around £164.2m, represents a 24% premium over its closing price yesterday. But the deal is far below last years peak of 176p a share.
Stocks quickly gained on the announcement today, rising 16.5p to 119p by mid morning. The outstanding 47% stake is worth £77.2m under Mr Evans offer.
Evans of Leeds’ board has appointed a committee of four non-executive directors to consider the proposal.
Committee members include chairman John Padovan and non-executive director Keith Hellawell, better known as the governments drugs tsar.
Evans of Leeds results for the year to March 31 are scheduled to be released in the next few weeks.
Last year the group reported pretax profits of £13.9m on a turnover of £30.45.
Evans owns a range of commercial properties, but its most high profile investment in recent years has been the White Rose Shopping Centre near Leeds, developed jointly with Land Securities.
EGi News 21/05/99
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