Cardiff headquartered bakery and cake business Finsbury Food Group is set to be acquired in a £143.4m deal.
The board of the company, which as well as its HQ and Memory Lane bakery operation in Cardiff also has 海角视频 manufacturing sites in Pontypool, East Kilbride, Hamilton, Salisbury, Sheffield and Manchester, has recommended a takeover offer from Isle of Man investment firm DBAY Advisors.
The offer, subject to shareholder approval, would see DBAY paying 110p per share for the Alternative Investment Market listed company. This represents a premium of 23.6% on Finsbury’s 89p closing price on Tuesday.
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Chairman of Finsbury Food Group, Peter Baker, said: “Finsbury has a successful track record under the leadership of the current management team of delivering sustainable, profitable organic growth along with strategic, targeted acquisitions. For the next phase of the Finsbury Group’s development the business will need to pursue strategic, transformational merger and acquisitions to achieve the scale required to be successful in an increasingly competitive and demanding market place.
"I am confident that Finsbury will thrive under DBAY’s stewardship in the private market, with access to DBAY’s investment and operational support to pursue the current strategy of scaling Finsbury’s buy-and-build merger and acquisitions in the future.
The Finsbury board has carefully reviewed the terms of DBAY’s cash offer, and believes it provides shareholders with an accelerated, de-risked opportunity to realise their investment in full and in cash at an attractive premium to both the current share price and the long term weighted average share price.
As such, the Finsbury board unanimously intends to recommend that Finsbury Shareholders also vote in favour of the acquisition.”
The deal is expected to be finalised year end. DBAY is current a minority shareholder in the business, having begun acquiring equity in August last year.
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Alexander Paiusco, chief executive of DBAY, said: “We are pleased to have reached agreement with the Finsbury board and that the acquisition has received a unanimous recommendation. The cash offer represents an opportunity for Finsbury shareholders to realise their investment in cash at a premium to the historical share price and as an alternative to the cash offer we have offered shareholders the ability to retain a shareholding in Finsbury going forward through the alternative offer.
“We have been supportive shareholders of the business for over a year and have been impressed with the management team during our ownership, but we strongly believe Finsbury would benefit from transformational merger and acquisitions including international expansion and this would be better achieved in private ownership without the barrier of the current listing. We look forward to working with management and employees to accelerate Finsbury’s strategy and unlock the long-term value for all stakeholders.”
Finsbury, which also has operations in France and Poland, its last financial year to July 2, 2023, posted revenues of just over £413m. The deal is expected to go unconditional by year end.