LONDON (Alliance News) - English Rose Enterprises Ltd said Monday that it has now got binding irrevocable undertakings for just over 6.9 million Beale PLC shares, or a 33.81% stake in the company.
Last Monday, Beale and English Rose Enterprises announced that they had reached agreement on a discounted cash offer for Beale which values the department store company at just GBP1.2 million, a culmination of a long-running battle with shareholder Andrew Perloff, who is behind English Rose.
Under the terms of the deal, Beale shareholders will get 6 pence per share in cash, which represented a discount of around 48% to the closing price of 11.5 pence on January 16. Beale shares have fallen since the announcement of the deal last week, and were trading at 6.03 pence Monday midday, down 3.5% from Friday's close.
At the time, the board of Beale, which runs the Beales department store, said it considered the offer to be "disappointing" and said that under different circumstances it could have achieved a higher price. But, it said, the complex capital structure of the business imposes a number of restrictions on the company as regards to securing new financing, meaning it believes shareholders should consider the offer carefully and may wish to accept the bid dependent on individual circumstances.
On January 19, English Rose said it had received binding irrevocable undertakings for a 29.82% stake in Beale. That has now increased to just over 33.8%.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
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