Major shareholder puts in rival bid for Purplebricks
Solihull estate agent Purplebricks has received a takeover offer from its major shareholder, a week after saying it had agreed to sell its business and assets for £1 to online rival Strike.
The troubled property firm said the new proposal came from activist investor Lecram Holdings, which is the investment vehicle of Adam Smith, who has been a longstanding critic of Purplebricks’ chairman Paul Pindar.
The offer is to acquire the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of Purplebricks at a price of just 0.5p per share, valuing the company at £153.4m.
But the firm said it does not recommend Lecram’s offer to shareholders and does not “currently consider” that the bid shows any substantial improvement from its proposed sale to smaller rival Strike.
Under takeover code rules, Lecram is required by 5pm on 23 June either to announce a firm intention to make an offer or to retract its proposal.
Lecram, had lost its battle to replace Purplebricks chairman Paul Pinder, with former Rightmove and Countrywide founder Harry Hill in December.
At a general meeting 71% of shareholders voted to keep Pindar in place, but nearly 29% voted for his removal. Nearly 42% of shareholders voted to appoint Hill as a director, with 58% voting against.
