The offer, at 555p a share, values the retailer at£311 million. Bidder WCC Hortis consortium comprises Hunter's TBH Trading and partners BG Holdings (a Baugur Group subsidiary), Uberior (a subsidiary of HBoS), Prestbury and LxB SmallCo.
Wyevale chairman Jim Hodkinson said: 'We are mindful that, despite the recent strengthening of our management team, the sectors in which we operate continue to be highly competitive. In addition, trading conditions so far this year have been difficult. In these circumstances, and reflecting the certainty of 555p per share in cash today, the board has concluded that the WCC Hortis cash offer provides shareholders with fair values for their shares.'
If the acquisition is successful, the new owners will to continue to run the company as a garden centre business. WCC Hortis plans to plough further investment into the group in order to maintain Wyevale's position in the UK garden centre market and make the changes 'it sees necessary to allow the business to develop'.
Subject to shareholder approval, the deal is expected to become effective on June 19.
In preliminary results also released today, Wyevale posted a fall in pre-tax profit before exceptionals of 6.3 per cent to£20.7 million. Like-for-like sales were down 1.7 per cent.
Sales for the first 15 weeks of this year were down 14.6 per cent and during the five weeks over the March period, sales were down 33.1 per cent. The group blamed exceptionally cold weather for the poor results.
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