Wyevale in takeover speculations as Laxey challenges Williams once again |
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Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:05
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LONDON: The UK's largest garden center company Wyevale Garden Centres Plc, which is in the middle of a simmering row between chairman David Williams and activist investor Laxey Partners, has confirmed yesterday that it had received a number of takeover approaches.
Some of these approaches are from reputed private equity houses and have prompted Wyevale to say that it was considering its options. However, David Williams said that any offer should be closer to 600 pence if it was serious about taking over the firm. Williams who has been responsible for a better performance of the firm's shares since he began his stint with Wyevale in March is looking to sell 28 smaller sites thus bringing the total Wyevale sites to 86. He added that Wyevale would be refurbishing larger stores and improve merchandising in a bid to attract more customers.
There was also some speculation that Edinburgh-based Dobbies could bid for Wyevale. However, Seymour Pierce analyst Richard Ratner sought to dismiss such speculations by saying, "I can't imagine Dobbies is in a strong enough financial position to go for Wyevale, even with a private equity backer."
The garden retailer also said that it had received an application form its largest shareholder, Laxey Partners (UK) Ltd in which the demand to oust Chairman David Williams has been tabled. Laxey own 19 percent of the garden retailer's stock. Laxey want to replace Williams with former deputy chief executive of MEPC, Robert Ware.
Commenting on this attitude of Laxey, Williams said, "I can only assume they are trying to gain control of a public company by the back door. They should clearly outline to shareholders what their strategy is and why it is better." But Colin Kingsnorth, chairman of Laxey, was adamant, "We don't think David Williams is the right man to drive through change. He's a consensus man. He's got no views at all," he said. The Financial Times has compared this attitude of Laxey to a "stinging nettle."
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