Marlowe abandons pursuit of Restore

(Sharecast News) - Business software and services company Marlowe said on Tuesday that it does not plan to make an offer for Restore as the two companies have been unable to reach an agreement.
Marlowe said it still believes a combination would have been "strategically compelling, creating a business of scale delivering a broad spectrum of complementary business-critical services and software to UK organisations and providing a platform for significant future growth".

However, it said the offer price that would be required to secure a deal would not deliver attractive value creation for Marlowe shareholders.

"The board remains focused on delivering on the strategy outlined at the Capital Markets Day on 17 February 2021 with attractive future growth opportunities across the business-critical service and software markets and is highly confident of the group's future standalone prospects," Marlowe said.

Restore rejected a £743m takeover offer from Marlowe last month, arguing that it "significantly" undervalued the group.

The company's non-executive chairman, Martin Towers, said: "We have made significant strategic progress in 2021, alongside a sustained recovery from the impact of the pandemic, becoming a larger, stronger and growing business.

"We were delighted to have received such strong support from our shareholders through this process and are committed to generating sustainable long-term value for them and all of our stakeholders, through the continued delivery of our strategy."

At 0940 BST, Restore shares were down 4.8% at 480p, while Marlowe shares were 6.4% higher at 800p.