€145m takeover bid for Abbey

The majority shareholders of Irish housebuilding group, Abbey, have lodged a €145m takeover bid for the company.

Gallagher Holdings — which represents the interests of the Gallagher family and is headed up by Abbey’s chairman, Charles Gallagher and his brother and fellow board member, David — has had to lodge a mandatory bid for the company after the purchase of a further 931,537 shares upped its share of the group from 47.2% to 51.6%.

The bid for Abbey’s entire share capital values the company at £114.1m (€144.7m).

Abbey replied to the move in a short statement, which said that it had noted that the mandatory offer is unconditional and is a final offer, which will not be increased.

Abbey added that its independent directors — basically all of its current board, except the Gallagher brothers — will provide further advice to shareholders “in due course”.

The board, in the meantime, has told shareholders to take no action.

Abbey’s share price shot up by over 9% to €6.60 in response to yesterday’s announcement.

The bid comes less than a month after the publication of Abbey’s most recent annual results, covering the 12 months to the end of April, which showed a 5.2% increase in pre-tax profits to nearly €12.1m.

The group’s management said that it is budgeting for a further significant turnover increase in the current year — revenue last year jumped by nearly 6% to €70.4m — mainly on the back of an expected improvement in trading conditions in its British operations, but warned that this might not be met with a similar rise in profit levels.

Abbey’s housebuilding activities cover Ireland, Britain and the Czech Republic, while the group also owns a profitable builders merchants company, M&J Hire, in Britain, which last year generated revenues of approximately €12m.