Redrow takeover talks end

Redrow Chairman Steve Morgan last night ditched his plan to buy the housebuilder he founded in 1974, bringing seven weeks of takeover talks to an end after falling foul of Takeover Panel regulations.

The 59-year-old entrepreneur, who left the Flintshire-based company in 2000 but returned as Executive Chairman in a boardroom coup nine years later, proposed a 152p-a-share-offer at the end of August worth £560m.

But in a statement to the stock exchange at 16:50 on Thursday, after shares closed up 2.8p to 162.5p, he revealed that talks "have now been terminated".

The approach was made through Morgan's investment vehicle Bridgemere Securities which holds a 40% stake in Redrow, together with Toscafund, Redrow's second-largest shareholder with 14% and Penta Capital.

However, The Telegraph has revealed that Fidelity, which holds 10.47% of Redrow, complained that with more than 57% of Redrow, the consortium's bid would have been unfair to smaller shareholders, who would have little power to vote down the deal, which only needs 75% acceptance to be voted through.

This appears to have been backed by the Takeover Panel and so the bid has failed.

A spokesperson from the Takeover Panel refused to comment on this case. Meanwhile, nobody at Redrow was available to discuss this matter when contacted.

CM