Rivals stall Boparan bid for Northern Foods

RANJIT BOPARAN’S rivals in his takeover bid for Northern Foods have won more time to make a counter offer after the Takeover Panel agreed to postpone today’s shareholders’ meeting.

The meeting had been planned to discuss Greencore’s original offer for the Leeds-based food group, but West Bromwich based Boparan, owner of the Two Sisters chicken processor, came through with a £342m cash offer, which was recommended by the Northern Foods board.

Now Greencore have more time to put together their response to the Boparan bid – they have 46 days to do so. But the move is unlikely to delay Boparan’s progress in the battle, following a week in which he bought up more than £16m worth of Northern Foods shares.

Mr Boparan’s 73p per share cash offer valued the company at £342m,  substantially higher than the 48.2p per share value implied by the terms of the proposed merger with Greencore.

Greencore is thought to be considering adding a cash incentive to its offer but today Northern Foods said it had not yet received a revised bid.

Mr Boparan, who bought fish and chip chain Harry Ramsden’s 12 months ago, is known to have raised his stake in Northern Foods to more than 11%.