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Article: Esporta recommends Duke Street's offer.
- Article from:
- Financial News
- Article date:
- July 15, 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)
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Byline: Yasmine Chinwala
The board of Esporta, the leisure club chain, has recommended the revised 87.5p per share offer from Duke Street Capital, the UK private equity firm, bringing to a close the first hostile public-to-private acquisition since 1999.The board of Esporta had advised shareholders to reject Duke Street Capital's initial 80p per share hostile offer, which valued the company at pound sterling133m ([euro]2.7m). The 80p offer represented a premium of about 57% to Esporta's share price of 51p on October 19, 2001, the last dealing day before the press began to speculate about an offer.
On July 12, Duke Street acquired the 9.96% stake in ...