REG.L Regulatory News (REG)

13 Jul 2005 15:37

Regent Inns PLC13 July 2005 13 July 2005 Regent Inns plc ("Regent" or the "Company") Response to statement by Urbium plc The board of Regent Inns notes the rejection of its final* proposed offer ("theFinal* Offer") released earlier today by Urbium plc ("Urbium"). In response tothis statement, it makes the following observations: 1. Urbium states that it has considered the conditionality of the Final* Offer in arriving at its conclusion to reject the Final* Offer. It should be noted that the conditionality of the Final* Offer is not unusual for a proposal of this nature. It should further be noted that the requirements relating to the completion of due diligence investigations under the non-waivable pre-condition referred to in yesterday's announcement are likely to be less onerous then those of a private equity bidder for Urbium. 2. Urbium states that it has recently received serious expressions of interest from a number of parties who have expressed a desire to make conditional all cash offers for Urbium and suggests that it may receive further such approaches. Following its request to the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers for the imposition of a put up or shut up deadline, Regent Inns is surprised that Urbium appears to be running a public auction process and inviting offers from third parties. 3. Regent Inns requests Urbium to confirm whether the prices of the approaches received are at a premium to the Final* Offer, the level of conditionality associated with these approaches and whether these proposals have been reconfirmed subsequent to the tragic events of last Thursday. 4. Urbium states that it has yet to carefully evaluate the approaches from other parties yet has rejected the Final* Offer out of hand. Regent Inns reserves the right to increase the Final* Offer if a Rule 2.5announcement in relation to Urbium is made by a third party. In accordance with Rule 2.4 of the City Code, Regent Inns reserves the right toreduce the share element of the Final* Offer for Urbium and/or to reduce thecash element of the Final* Offer, in either case where the offer is recommendedby the board of Urbium. Bob Ivell, Chairman of Regent Inns said: "We fail to understand how Urbium has concluded that it is in the best interestsof its shareholders to refuse us access to due diligence information. Based onRegent Inns' current share price, our Final* Offer of 975 pence represents a 54%premium over Urbium's pre-offer period share price and a premium of 70% overUrbium's share price of 573.5 pence on 12 May 2005. It further offers Urbiumshareholders the opportunity to realise 45% of the value of the Final* Offer incash and to benefit from the future upside available to the combined group." Enquiries: Regent Inns 020 8375 3000Bob Ivell, Executive Chairman Close Brothers 020 7655 3100Richard Grainger / Christopher Lewey Panmure Gordon 020 7459 3600Tim Linacre Merlin 020 7653 6620Vanessa Maydon / Rebecca Penney The directors of Regent accept responsibility for the information contained inthis announcement. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the directors ofRegent (who have taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), theinformation contained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts anddoes not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.Close Brothers Corporate Finance Limited ("Close Brothers"), which is regulatedin the United Kingdom by The Financial Services Authority, is acting for Regentand no-one else in connection with the matters referred to in this announcementand will not be responsible to anyone other than Regent for providing theprotections afforded to customers of Close Brothers or for providing advice inrelation to the matters set out in this announcement or any transaction orarrangement referred to herein. Panmure Gordon & Co, which is regulated in the United Kingdom by The FinancialServices Authority, is acting for Regent and for no-one else in connection withthe matters referred to in this announcement and will not be responsible toanyone other than Regent for providing the protections afforded to customers ofPanmure Gordon & Co or for providing advice in connection with the matters setout in this announcement or any transaction or arrangement referred to herein. * Regent Inns reserves the right to increase the Final* Offer if a Rule 2.5announcement in relation to Urbium is made by a third party. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange