Arnotts board turns down Malpas offer
Malpas Holdings, the investment vehicle owned by the O’Connor family, which owns 24.7% of Arnotts, said over the weekend that it was intending to table a cash bid of €200 million for the 60% of Arnotts which is owned by the rival Nesbitt family.
That bid was swiftly rejected by Arnotts chairman Richard Nesbitt on Saturday, before he added that he would be prepared to offer the O’Connor family €25 per share for their stake in the business.
In a statement yesterday, the directors of Malpas said that they now intended to “fully consider the implications of the decision of the Arnotts board before deciding on the next course of action”.
The statement said that Malpas was looking to bid for the company as a way of preserving its value “for all shareholders”.
“The decision [by Mr Nesbitt to turn down the proposed deal] is most surprising particularly as the offer values Arnotts at between €70m and €100m above the valuation placed on the company by Mr Nesbitt.”
Malpas said that it was disappointed with the Arnotts board’s rejection of the offer as well as its decision not to refer it to all of the company’s shareholders.
Arnotts is reportedly looking to generate revenues of around €230m this year and EBITDA of around €20m.
It is understood that the O’Connor family is unhappy with a number of things at Arnotts — including its trading performance (a pre-tax loss of €1.73m last year on sales of €144.8m) and aspects of the development of the new Northern Quarter project — Arnotts’ planned €700m project that will transform shopping north of the Liffey and effectively link O’Connell, Henry and Abbey Streets in a northside version of Temple Bar.
Mr Nesbitt claims that the Malpas/O’Connor bid for Arnotts is effectively dead in the water, but speculation has already risen that it may only be the start.
The O’Connor family are not intending to walk away so quickly and the fact that one bid has been made for the company could trigger bids from other interested parties.
