(Alliance News) - Citrus UK Bidco Ltd has upped its stake in takeover target easyHotel PLC to over 50%, ICAMAP Investments Sarl - part of Citrus consortium - said Wednesday.
ICAMAP, an existing investor in easyHotel, said it purchased further 2.6 million shares at 95.00 pence each, worth GBP2.5 million in total.
Shares in easyHotel were up 0.3% at 94.80p each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
ICAMAP, together with real estate developers Cadim Fonds Inc, are part of Citrus consortium, formed with the intention of acquiring easyHotel.
The Citrus consortium values easyHotel's share capital at GBP138.7 million and gave the company an enterprise value of GBP126.1 million, when it announced its intention to acquire the hotel chain earlier in August.
ICAMAP said Wednesday that the acceptances for the 95.00p per share Citrus offer must be received by September 17. The consortium on August 15 secured 7.9 million shares in easyHotel for a total of GBP7.6 million.
easyHotel's independent directors have backed the Citrus offer valuation though its founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou said the offer was too low.
In a statement on Wednesday, Haji-Ioannou accused ICAMAP of attempting to "steal the company from under the noses of other investors".
Haji-Ioannou, who does not serve as a director, attempted to purchase more easyHotel shares this week with the intention of boosting his holding in the company to just under 30%.
He said: "My plan was to increase my stake in easyHotel PLC from the current level of just under 28% to just under 30%. However, we managed to find only 10,000 shares at 95.00p and despite bidding up to 96.00p, we found no other willing sellers at that price. We will continue to buy shares in the open market up to the limit of just under 30%."
"Clearly this purchase of a token number of shares, less than 0.01% of the share capital, was all that was available to my brokers and is evidence that there are not many sellers at 95.00p. This is proof that the real value of an easyHotel share today is well above ICAMAP’s offer," Haji-Ioannou said.
The easyHotel founder also noted that ICAMAP paid 110.00p per share when it invested in the company 18 months ago and 15 months ago, the stock was as high as 128.00p.
Haji-Ioannou said: "It is outrageous for ICAMAP to argue that the value of the company has gone down 14% since they made their last investment at 110p only 18 months ago when ICAMAP had just appointed Harm Meijer as an active easyHotel board director.
"So who is ICAMAP blaming exactly for such value destruction? Or perhaps it has simply not occurred. I think ICAMAP is simply trying to steal this company from under the noses of other investors," Haji-Ioannou added.