|
|
Article: Esporta board rejects [pounds sterling]133m Duke Street bid.
- Article from:
- Financial News
- Article date:
- May 31, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Financial News Publishing Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: Yasmine Chinwala
The board of Esporta, the UK-based leisure clubs chain, has advised shareholders to reject the 80p per share hostile offer from Duke Street Capital, the private equity firm, which values the company at [pound]133m ([euro]207.5m). The bid is the first hostile public-to-private acquisition since 1999. Analysts have set a target of 100p per share.
Esporta's board said in a statement that the bid was a "nil premium offer". Esporta's share price was 82.5p at close of trading on Thursday and was trading at 80.5p on Friday afternoon.
Duke Street currently owns 25% of Esporta's shares. Duke Street's offer statement said the ...