Quadrise Share News (QED)

LONDON (Alliance News) - US private equity house Lone Star on Friday managed to secure unconditional approval for its increased takeover bid for London-based property developer Quintain Estates & Development PLC, a day after activist investor Elliott Capital Advisors built up a Quintain stake in order to push for a higher price.

Quintain, which owns a large portion of land around Wembley Stadium in North London, accepted a GBP700.0 million takeover bid from Lone Star at the end of July. Since then, the bid deadline has been extended twice as Lone Star worked to secure the 75% of acceptances it needed to push the deal through.

On Thursday, The Times newspaper reported that Elliott, an aggressive activist hedge fund which also has been waging a battle with the board of Alliance Trust PLC, the FTSE 250 investment fund, had built up a stake of around 13% in Quintain via a contracts-for-difference arrangement and that it was planning to oppose Lone Star's offer, claiming it "substantially undervalues" Quintain.

The build up of the holding was confirmed in a stock exchange filing by Quintain on Thursday, when it said Elliott now holds a 12.9% stake in the business.

On Friday, Lone Star said it raised its bid for Quintain to 141 pence per share in cash, valuing the company at around GBP745.0 million. The offer respresented a 32% premium to Quintain's closing share price on July 28, the day before the offer was originally made, rather than the 22% premium the first bid was made at.

Later Friday, Lone Star said it has now secured acceptances representing approximately 76.0% of Quintain's share capital, meaning it has now passed the 75% threshold set to make the offer unconditional.

Shares in Quintain were up 7.0% on the news to 140.75 pence, one of the best performers in the FTSE All-Share.

By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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