Johnston Group settles for Tarmac's £53m bid

Tarmac's £53m offer for the John-ston Group, trumping Ennstone's existing £48m bid by 10%, has quickly achieved the status of "a done deal", with the only remaining hurdle being clearance by the competition authorities.
The proposal sees Tarmac taking on Johnston's hard stone quarry at Leaton in Shropshire, plus Leaton's asphalt plant. The move also allows Tarmac to extend its range of concrete products, thanks to Johnston's concrete pipes manufacturing plant at Telford, Shropshire.
Ennstone will not be left empty-handed: in a secondary deal worth £11m and designed to minimise the chances of referral to the competition authority, a second Johnston quarry at Leinthall, near Leominster, will be sold to Ennstone.
Tarmac is lining up another secondary deal. Chief executive Robbie Robertson said: "There were expressions of interest for Johnston's engineering division prior to our bid and there have been more since."
Tarmac has a long-standing 25% shareholding in Johnston. Robertson said: "Our agreed offer is being recommended by the Johnston board. Having secured an agreement to also acquire the 50% shareholding held by the Johnston family, it means we start with 75% of Johnston's shares already committed to us.
"One quarry has been offered to Ennstone, and by structuring the overall offer this way, there is no danger of a reference to the competition authority."
Ennstone shareholders are still pushing for a review of the business. It has postponed its EGM, in the light of Tarmac's bid, until
25 October.
North Atlantic Value (NAV) said it would continue with its calls for a strategic review of the business and to appoint Jonathan Scott-Barrett as a director
of Ennstone.
NAV corporate finance director Charles Groves said: "We still believe there are corporate governance issues that need to be resolved urgently."
Ennstone shareholder Aggre-gate Industries has not issued a statement about its intentions since Tarmac's bid became
public.