John Hackman, who saw through the orderly termination of Slater Walker Properties, and David Jackson, who turned Keith & Henderson from a cloth company into a property group, are back on the scene.
They have taken control of New England Properties at a price of 4.3p a share, which compares with the 50p-plus to which the shares jumped when their involvement became known.
As a consequence of Messrs Hackman and Jackson acquiring control, they have been obligated under the takeover code to make an offer for all the outstanding shares. They are offering 5p for each ordinary and 20p for each 100p of 10% convertible unsecured loan stock.
The offers are not, of course, designed to appeal to New England shareholders and the two new directors are not expecting to pull in any more shares.
As part of their resuscitation plan for New England, the directors have authorised a three-for-two rights issue at 5p a share. The offer will raise £1.9m.
The new directors came in when Hunting Group and its subsidiaries sold just over 50% of the capital to Mr Hackman and Mr Jackson. Hunting Group, along with another major shareholder, Friesch-Groningsche Hypotheekbank, and two directors have undertaken not to accept the offer in respect of their other shareholdings.
Mr Jackson will bring into New England his interest, amounting to about 5%, in the Whiteley’s development in London, at no charge to the company.
He is hoping that he will be able to use New England to initiate other deals, bringing various parties together to develop schemes where the company could take an interest.
