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I see The Telegraph have now changed their headline from takeover to merger. Perhaps the Halfords board will release an rns tomorrow explaining their current position of the talks with Redde Northgate but I'm not expecting any significant share price movement on the back of The Telegraph article.
Such a generous offer on the part of the other party...
What a nonsense.. US suitors only please
Van rental outfit Redde Northgate has made a £1.4bn merger approach for the high street bike and car repair chain Halfords.
It is understood that the pair have held detailed talks about a possible tie-up after Redde Northgate, which owns 130,000 vans and corporate cars in the UK and Spain, made a firm proposal to Halfords.
A City source said Redde Northgate had proposed a nil-premium merger, but the discussions were abandoned because of disagreements over price. The Halfords board is thought to have concluded that any such deal on the terms laid out would have undervalued the company.
However, it is believed that Redde Northgate could mount a fresh bid if the valuation gap between the two sides closes. It is understood that the Takeover Panel was informed of the discussions, which took place in the last few months.
A source close to the negotiations said: “There were discussions about what an integration of the two businesses might look like but there were questions over the valuations of both companies.
“Both share prices weren’t doing fantastically well at the time so there is nothing live at the moment. However, it could come back.”
Founded in 1892, Halfords is one of the most recognisable and biggest names on the high street. It has roughly 12,000 employees, nearly 400 stores, and close to 650 garages providing full repairs, MOT’s and other services. Its annual turnover was £1.6bn last year.
At current values, a nil-premium merger would value the combined company at close to £1.4bn.
With its shares trading at 365p, Redde Northgate has a market cap of £843m. Halford’s shares were changing hands at 234p on Friday, giving it a stock market value of £512m.
Halfords’ share price is up 8pc this year, but 20pc over the last month. Shares in Redde Northgate have fallen 12pc since the beginning of 2023, but have climbed 13pc in the last four weeks.
For the time being, Halfords has its sights set on much smaller targets. The retailer is among the bidders for Wiggle, the online bike chain that collapsed into administration last month.
Redde Northgate was created during the pandemic when van rental specialist Northgate joined forces with Redde, formerly known as Helphire, which sorts accident claims from businesses and company fleets. It went on to snap up the remnants of vehicle repair provider Nationwide Accident Services.
The company’s customers were historically the smaller end of the market but it has added some large corporate clients including Royal Mail, as well as several government departments and local authorities.
Chief executive Martin Ward has said that its customers prefer vehicle rental over ownership because it provides “flexibility over the cost of owning vehicles”.
In recent years, growth at Halfords has increasingly been driven by its network of car garages, which are more profitable than selling bikes. Sales now represent 40pc of total group turnover compared wit
Full article on advfn thread
The Telegraph headline is misleading because it should read it's a merge that Redde Northgate are proposing
I can't read the article in the Daily Telegraph because It's behind a paywall but the headline suggests Redde Northgate are offering £1.4b for Halfords. Hopefully someone on this site has access to the full article and will post further details.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/18/halfords-targeted-14bn-merger-van-hire-provider/
Now added to the current mcap
That's a £50m valuation for a subsidiary that was barely on the radar.
Also today lots of sells and yet the SP is continuing to go up, I think something will be announced soon
IMHO there's likely some truth to the rumors. £1.5bln+ in revenue (and growing), next to zero debt and only a £400m market cap.
The problem of course is that the CEO hasn't been able to convert consistently growing revenue into a consistently growing PBT figure, which is why the share price is 45% less than when he took office in 2018.
Any buyer would be looking to take advantage of this dreadful performance to get a deal through. If there was an offer on the table of 300p+ then I think a lot of institutional holders would jump at the chance to get shut.
If the rumoured offer of 270p was rejected, then the current SP is a bargain price. And according to the rumours there was another bidder, who probably offered more let’s say for argument sake 350p, this will also get rejected.
I think there will be a offer of 400p to 450p soon, as negotiations was not denied by Halford company, the just said we don’t comment on rumours
Did you talk to Halford staff ?
DYOR
Tssz
Surely if you tell us we don’t need too
Please 🙏
Wouldn't be surprised if something more comes out of this....
DYOR
Go and ask them yourself, but the SP is heading in the right direction
Why ??
What’s the staff got to say ??
Wow PI’s need to speak to Halford staff, about the takeover rumours
DYOR
This one is slightly different given that its in the public domain and there was a temporary share price bump.
Why would you think it would be with the stock exchange. It's actually pretty common for companies to receive offers, reject them and not even tell the market until months later.
If a formal offer and rejection had been made details would now be with the Stick Exchange. All looks pretty lame.
Betaville did the same thing with Aviva about a week ago. Some are making a tidy profit on the rumours…
I hope there’s a bidder for the boards sake.
If there isn’t, there’s going to be a lot of questions about the pathetic performance of the share price.
Pump and dump! Anyone looking at buying would been a roadmap to cut costs and or significantly boost earnings.
Market reaction was quite something though up 20% on just a rumour, I feel there's a high chance what was reported was true
Halford said we don’t comment on rumours, which means someone made some quick money by spreading false rumours
They did make a comment, see sharecast news, yes likely this near 20% gain will likely fall somewhat today