Billionaire businessman makes full £5.7m offer in Bon Marché takeover
Billionaire businessman Phillip Day has now submitted the mandatory offer to acquire the entire share capital of struggling women’s retailer Bon Marché.
This announcement follows on from Spectre Holdings, a Dubai-based holding company owned by Day, this morning announcing a takeover of the Wakefield-headquartered listed retailer after unconditionally acquiring 52% of its shares for £3m.
Day has now offered to acquire the remainder of Bon Marché not already owned by Spectre, at a price of 11.445 pence per ordinary share. This would be valued at £2.73m and take the total takeover acquisition cost to £5.73m.
Bon Marché said that directors are now considering the terms of the mandatory offer and in the meantime, Bon Marché advised shareholders to take no action in relation to the announcement.
Bon Marché is now considered to be in an “Offer Period” as defined in Rule 9 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers Code.
The women’s retailer has over 300 stores and concessions across the UK and was admitted to AIM in November 2013, moving to a Main Market listing in October 2015.
Bon Marché has recently released several negative trading updates, including the announcement on the 19 March when the board announced an estimated underlying pre-tax profit of between £5m – £6m for the year ending 31 March 2019.
The estimated loss has increased materially from the announcement made in December 2018 when the board announced it estimated underlying pre-tax profit for the year to range from breakeven to a £4m loss.
For the most recent audited financial full year ended 31 March 2018, Bonmarché reported pre-tax profit of £800,000 on turnover of £186m. The unaudited interim results to 29 September 2018 reported pre-tax profit of £2.3m on turnover of £97.9m.
