Toye & Co chairman launches £9.5m takeover bid

TOYE & Co, Birmingham’s oldest manufacturer, is the subject of a takeover bid this morning after chairman Bryan Toye reached an agreement to acquire 272,000 shares in the company.

The shares are currently held by Gibraltar company Harris Rodriguez which has agreed to sell the shares to Toye at a price of 35p a share, valuing them at £9.52m.

Following the acquisition, Toye and his affiliates will be ‘interested’ in 53.2% of the company’s issued share capital and is thus required to make a mandatory cash offer for the company under Rule 9 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers.

The offer will be unconditional and will be made by Bryan Toye Limited, a special purpose limited liability company wholly controlled by Bryan Toye.
 
The independent directors of Toye, being the directors other than Bryan Toye and Fiona Toye who are deemed to be acting in concert with BTL, will write to shareholders setting out their response to the offer once it has been formally announced.
 
A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.

Toye & Co is a jewellery and regalia designer based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.

It recently featured in an episode of the series Hidden Histories: Britain’s Oldest Family Businesses.

It is one of only a handful of regalia-making companies left in Britain today. It uses traditional techniques to make thousands of items for the military, exclusive societies, foreign leaders and the Royal Household, including The Queen.

The business, which operates from two factories and employs 132 people, has been handed down from father to son for hundreds of years and is now run by Fiona Toye, the first female member of the family to take charge – although her connection is through marriage rather than birthright.