Zeus and Howson unite for £5m Accuma bid
NORTH West financial services group Zeus and the boss of AIM-listed debt management group Accuma have made a £5m bid for the business.
Salford-based Zeus, headed by financiers Ian Currie and Richard Hughes, has teamed up with Accuma chief executive Charles Howson to make the 15.5p per share bid for the Manchester-based group.
The offer – made via an acquisition vehicle called HH Bidco – is some 88% higher than the closing price of Accuma’s shares on Tuesday .
Mr Howson owned around 25% of Accuma, which employs 40 people and recently moved to Trafford from Piccadilly Tower, while Zeus held around 3% of the shares.
Accuma, which first announced bid talks were underway back in August, joined the AIM market in March 2005 and carried out a share placing at 82p.
After initial success and growth on the back of the surge in popularity for IVAs – Individual Voluntary Arrangements for debt-ridden consumers – the business struggled and its share price tumbled as lenders tightened up the IVA rules.
In May, the company sold its individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) businesses to accountancy firm Grant Thornton for £5.6m, leaving consumer debt management specialist B&K as the only trading subsidiary.
In a statement Accuma’s independent directors said: “with one remaining trading subsidiary, the base of the Accuma business has become too narrow to provide attractive shareholder returns on the capital employed in the business.”
“In addition the impact of overhead and management costs associated with maintaining Accuma’s trading facility on AIM is, in the opinion of the independent directors, proportionately too high for the remaining business.”
A court meeting will be held on 30 December to approve the scheme, which is expected to become effective on 22 January next year.
Zeus Capital’s Alex Clarkson said: “We see an opportunity to grow Accuma with Charles as a private business over the long term.”
In its offer document the bidders said: “HH Bidco intends to continue the debt-management business currently carried out by Accuma.
“The directors of HH Bidco may also in the future pursue other similar activities within the insolvency and loan broking sectors. HH Bidco plans to further grow and develop Accuma’s current business and provide synergistic services.
“Given the current small size of the Accuma Group, by removing from Accuma the extra financial and managerial responsibilities involved with being a publicly quoted company, the directors of HH Bidco believe Accuma will, in future, be well placed to take advantage of the current economic environment and build upon the past successes of Accuma.”
