Regis has this afternoon confirmed that it is in discussions with Merrill Lynch and William Pears regarding a possible offer for Grainger Trust.
The Southend-based residential property company said it is in discussions “with a number of possible providers of finance, both of debt and equity”, including the family-owned William Pears.
It is expected the consortium will submit an offer higher than the 670p approach made by Regis and Merrill Lynch which was rejected by Grainger earlier this month.
Analysts and brokers are quoting a hiked target price of 750p-800p.
Shares in Grainger were up 26p to 676 this afternoon.
William Pears was founded in 1952 is one of the UK’s largest private companies reporting net profits of £30.5m last year, triple £11.7m reported the previous year.
References: EGi News 18/10/06
