Boost for Joshua Alliance bidco as Frasers Group pledges to sell 20% stake in N Brown
Frasers Group, the business behind the Sports Direct brand, has given its approval for the proposed £191m takeover of Manchester-based online retailer, N Brown.
Joshua Alliance, son of Sir David Alliance, announced a bid yesterday (October 17) through his Falcon 24 Topco Limited bidco to take control of the business and ditch its listing on the Alternative Investment Market.
The Alliance family has been a supporter of N Brown for more than half a century.
By close of trading on Wednesday evening, Joshua Alliance held 6.6% of N Brown shares.
But the other members of the Alliance Family Concert Party were, in aggregate, interested in a further 249,915,491 N Brown Shares, representing approximately 53.4% of the issued share capital.
Joshua Alliance, said yesterday: “My family have been supporters of N Brown for over half a century, providing capital and having been involved in the strategic leadership of the business. I am delighted to continue that history.
“This transaction will support N Brown in accelerating its long term growth potential and provide, where needed, access to additional capital, expertise and resource to accelerate the longer term potential of the business.
“In the business’s current cycle of evolution, we will be able to achieve this growth potential more successfully away from the public markets.”
Now, Frasers Group has pledged to sell its stake in N Brown, which amounts to 20,3%, after signing an irrevocable undertaking to vote in favour of the recommended cash acquisition by Falcon 24 Topco.
In a statement to the stock exchange this afternoon, Frasers Group said: “The Acquisition values each N Brown share at 40 pence per share. At 40 pence per N Brown share, Frasers would have been a willing buyer or a willing seller. As it is, Frasers is a willing seller.
“Frasers wishes Joshua Alliance and the N Brown management team every success for the future, and although Frasers will have divested of its shareholding in full, Frasers looks forward to a strategic relationship with Joshua Alliance and the N Brown team post-acquisition.”
It added: “Frasers would also like to take the opportunity to thank N Brown and Joshua Alliance for the fulsome engagement ahead of the acquisition announcement.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Liverpool-based online retail group, Very, made a takeover bid for N Brown shortly before it agreed to accept the Joshua Alliance approach, according to Sky News.
Very Group – the former Littlewoods retail business, which is chaired by the ex-Conservative Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi – is understood to have submitted an offer at a discount to the 40p bid the N Brown’s board recommended this week.
