DODS.L Regulatory News (DODS)

28 Jul 2005 17:01

Huveaux PLC28 July 2005 Huveaux PLC28 July 2005 Recommended Offer by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein on behalf of Huveaux PLC for Epic Group plc Rule 8.4 disclosure With regard to the Offer Document to be posted shortly to Epic Shareholders and,as summarised in this morning's Rule 2.5 announcement, Huveaux announces that on27 July 2005 it received: (i) irrevocable undertakings to accept, or to procure the acceptance of, theOffer from the following Epic Directors in respect of the following numbers ofEpic Shares in which they (and certain persons connected with them (within themeaning of Section 346 of the Act)), and their related trusts, are interested: Name Number of Epic % of Epic Share Shares Capital Donald Clark 2,177,381 9.15Ian Ritchie 180,000 0.76John Gordon 35,000 0.15 These undertakings will continue to be binding in circumstances where a highercompeting offer is announced by a third party in respect of all the sharecapital of Epic, unless the Offer lapses or is withdrawn. (ii) irrevocable undertakings from those Epic Directors who do not beneficiallyhold Epic Shares but who do hold Epic Options (being Stephen Oliver and BrianStevens). Pursuant to the terms of these undertakings, each of these EpicDirectors has undertaken to accept the Offer in respect of any Epic Shares hemay be issued as a result of the exercise of his Epic Options. These irrevocableundertakings will continue to be binding in circumstances where a highercompeting offer is announced by a third party in respect of all of the sharecapital of Epic, unless the Offer lapses or is withdrawn. (iii) irrevocable undertakings to accept the Offer from the following EpicShareholders: Name Number of Epic % of Epic Share Shares Capital Framlington Investment Management Limited(a) 3,988,100 16.75Scottish Widows Investment Partnership(b) 2,232,886 9.38Artemis Investment Management Limited(c) 1,500,000 6.30Deutsche Asset Management(d) 1,685,876 7.08 These undertakings will continue to be binding save in circumstances where ahigher competing offer is announced by a third party where such offer has avalue, upon announcement, which exceeds the value of the Offer by: (a) 10 per cent. or more(b) 15 per cent. or more(c) more than 10 per cent.(d) the competing offer values each Epic Share at 100 pence or more (iv) a letter of intent to accept the Offer from M&G Investment ManagementLimited in respect of 600,000 Epic Shares representing 2.5 per cent. of theexisting issued share capital of Epic. Therefore, in aggregate, irrevocable undertakings and a letter of intent havebeen received by Huveaux to accept, or to procure the acceptance of, the Offerin respect of 12,399,243 Epic Shares, representing approximately 52.1 per cent.of the existing issued share capital of Epic. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange