Morson management edge closer to takeover
THE management team looking to complete a buy-out of Morson Group have announced that they have now gained acceptances from 71.4% of shareholders for their £23m offer for the company.
MMGG Acquisitions, a company largely owned by Morson’s founding chairman Gerry Mason and his chief executive son, Ged. Their bid has been criticised by a number of shareholders – including David Medlock, who had built a stake of more than 6% in the business – for being too low.
The offer of 50p per share was a 20% premium to the 41.4p per share Morson was trading at before the offer was announced, but is 37.5% lower than the 80p per share they were trading at towards the back end of last year, prior to the company’s announcement on December 14 that it would not be paying a dividend.
If MMGG gains control of 75% of the shares, it plans to de-list from the Alternative Investment Market. It extended its offer to shareholders this morning to Friday, July 6.
In a statement this morning, MMGG Acquisition pointed to a paragraph in its offer document which said the de-listing of Morson shares “will significantly reduce the liquidity and marketability of any Morson shares not acquired by MMGG”.
