Crest Nicholson fends off Castle Bidco
00:00 15 Nov 2006
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Crest Nicholson has rejected a bid approach by the Castle Bidco consortium at 585p a share, which values Crest at £660m.
Castle Bidco attempted to buy McCarthy & Stone earlier this year.
Crest, an urban regeneration group, has remained listed on the Stock Exchange after seeing off an earlier approach from Gerald Ronson’s Heron Corporation a year ago.
Castle Bidco is led by Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish entrepreneur. His consortium, which contains HBoS, already owns 27% of Crest’s shares, including Heron’s former 23% stake, Ronson has now abandoned his interest in Crest.
Crest’s share price prior to the latest bid stood at 571p. The latest news pushed them higher to 620p, which suggests that the City believes there is still more to come.
The fact that Castle Bidco holds 27% of Crest’s shares makes it less likely that a new bidder will emerge.
[Contract Journal, 15 November 2006, p 3]