Londis puts Musgrave offer on hold

The recommended £40m (€57.04m) offer by Cork-based Musgrave for Londis, the convenience store chain, has run into further difficulty.

Yesterday, Big Food Group, who owns the Iceland frozen food outlets, said it would offer £40.3m (€57.47m) if the 2000 independent retailers, who are Londis's shareholders, rejected the Musgrave offer.

In response, the Londis independent directors said the meeting to approve the Musgrave deal would be adjourned so that there was time for interested parties to have access to information.

This morning The Times newspaper in London said that store owners are now going to try to vote out Londis management for trying to pocket half of the takeover fee.

Also a shareholders' action group says that Londis must consider the longer-term strength of the convenience sector, which might be better served by an outcome that is not just the highest upfront price.