Pressure on Greencore as Northern Foods supports €401m bid by rival

MANAGEMENT at Greencore will be under severe pressure to resuscitate the company’s bid to take over Northern Foods after a last-minute £342 million (€401.7m) bid eclipsed the Irish company’s offer at the weekend.

British food manufacturer Northern Foods has agreed to be taken over by businessman Ranjit Boparan in a deal valuing the business at £342m, the company said on Friday. Northern Foods, the maker of Goodfella’s Pizza and Fox’s biscuits, is recommending that shareholders back a bid of 73 pence per share by Boparan and said it had withdrawn its support for a takeover by Greencore.

In a statement scheduled to be issued to the Irish Stock Exchange this morning, Greencore said its board continues to believe that a combination with Northern Foods to create Essenta Foods represents a compelling opportunity for value creation for both sets of shareholders. This, they said, can be achieved through the formation of a business with increased scale in the industry and the ability to deliver substantial synergies around which the board has increased confidence.