Toye & Co directors reject family offer to buy out the business

INDEPENDENT shareholders at one of Birmingham’s oldest manufacturers have rejected an offer to delist the company and take it back into family ownership.

Bryan Toye revealed last month he was attempting to buy out Toye & Co shareholders and take the medals and military regalia business back into private ownership.

Using a special purpose vehicle – Bryan Toye Ltd – he had proposed an offer for the share capital based on a price of 35p per share. The move values the business at almost £787,000.

As an incentive, Toye said capital would also be injected into the business once the delisting was complete.

The board has already approved a capital expenditure budget of £500,000 over the next five years.  Of this, £300,000 is expected to be incurred in the next 12 months principally on a new ERP system, computers and a new die sinking machine.  The £200,000 balance is anticipated to be incurred over the following four years.
 
The directors said they considered the expenditure to be a “necessary and appropriate use of the company’s cash resources”.

However, after taking advice from WH Ireland, the independent directors said they could not accept the offer as it devalued the company.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, they said: “Many loyal and long standing Toye shareholders will share our view that the offer price undervalues the company, and therefore the independent directors are not recommending that Toye shareholders accept the offer.”

The independent directors said they believed it was unlikely that any additional offer would be forthcoming because the concert party of separate shareholders controlled almost 68% of the share capital.